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İSTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ���� INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
M.Sc. Thesis by Deniz SAYAR
Department : Industrial Product Design
Programme : Industrial Product Design
JANUARY 2011
RETAIL EXPERIENCE IN THE TOTAL BATHROOM SECTOR: A S TUDY ON THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN VITRA RETAIL STORES A ND
AN INPUT PROPOSAL FROM SERVICE DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
Thesis Supervisor: Prof. Dr. H. Alpay ER
İSTANBUL TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY ���� INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
M.Sc. Thesis by Deniz SAYAR (502071953)
Date of submission : 20 December 2010 Date of defence examination: 28 January 2011
Supervisor (Chairman) : Prof. Dr. H. Alpay ER (ITU) Members of the Examining Committee : Prof. Dr. Özlem ER (ITU)
Assoc. Prof. Dr. Şebnem BURNAZ (ITU)
JANUARY 2011
RETAIL EXPERIENCE IN THE TOTAL BATHROOM SECTOR: A S TUDY ON THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN VITRA RETAIL STORES A ND
AN INPUT PROPOSAL FROM SERVICE DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
OCAK 2011
İSTANBUL TEKN İK ÜNİVERSİTESİ ���� FEN BİLİMLER İ ENSTİTÜSÜ
YÜKSEK L İSANS TEZİ Deniz SAYAR (502071953)
Tezin Enstitüye Verildiği Tarih : 20 Aralık 2010 Tezin Savunulduğu Tarih : 28 Ocak 2011
Tez Danışmanı : Prof. Dr. H. Alpay ER (İTÜ) Diğer Jüri Üyeleri : Prof. Dr. Özlem ER (İTÜ)
Doç. Dr. Şebnem BURNAZ (İTÜ)
BANYO EK İPMANLARI SEKTÖRÜNDE PERAKENDE DENEY İM İ: VİTRA MA ĞAZALARINDA MÜ ŞTERİ DENEYİMİ ÜZERİNE BİR
ÇALI ŞMA VE H İZMET TASARIMI PERSPEKT İFİNDEN GİRDİ ÖNERİSİ
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FOREWORD
To begin with, I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest gratitude and most sincere appreciation to my advisor, Prof. Dr. H. Alpay Er, for his guidance and support all through my graduate education. Without his assistance, enlightening insight and ceaseless encouragement, my academic development would be impossible. His generosity with both his time and his ideas as a teacher has been and will always be a model for me. Secondly, I would like to thank Assist. Prof. Dr. A. Can Özcan for his helpful remarks and consistent encouragement which sparked my academic enthusiasm and motivation. Moreover, I am deeply grateful to Eczacıbaşı Building Products Division, for giving me the opportunity to conduct this research and for all the valuable information, sources and experiences they shared. I especially would like to thank to the members of VitrA and İntema for their help and support throughout my data collection process. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude to my family, for their love, support and patience; especially the never-ending encouragements of my grandmother which illuminated my path in the most difficult times.
January 2011
Deniz SAYAR
Industrial Product Design
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
Page
TABLE OF CONTENTS ......................................................................................... vii ABBREVIATIONS ................................................................................................... ix LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................... xi LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................ xiii SUMMARY .............................................................................................................. xv ÖZET ....................................................................................................................... xvii 1. INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1
1.1 Background of the Research Subject ................................................................. 1
1.2 Method ............................................................................................................... 3 1.3 Structure and Aims of the Study ........................................................................ 3
2. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE ......... 7 2.1 Introduction ........................................................................................................ 7 2.2 Rising Importance of Experience: The Transition Towards “Experience Economy” ...................................................................................... 8 2.3 Definitions of the “Customer Experience” Concept ........................................ 10 2.4 Significance of Customer Experience in the Retail Context ............................ 11
2.5 Determinants of Customer Experience in Retail Settings ................................ 12 2.5.1 Experience Clues ....................................................................................... 13 2.5.2 Dramatic Structure .................................................................................... 15 2.5.3 Front office-Back office Coordination ...................................................... 16
2.5.4 Personal Interactions ................................................................................. 16 2.5.5 Retail Atmospherics and Sensory Design ................................................. 19
2.6 Summary of the Chapter................................................................................... 20 3. SERVICE DESIGN AS A NEW DESIGN PERSPECTIVE ............................ 21
3.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 21 3.2 The Nature of Services ..................................................................................... 22 3.3 Designing for Services ..................................................................................... 23
3.3.1 Service-Dominant Logic ........................................................................... 24
3.3.2 Concepts Related to Services and Service Design .................................... 26
3.3.3 Emergence of Service Design ................................................................... 28
3.3.4 Definition of Service Design ..................................................................... 29
3.4 Service Design Methods for Capturing Customer Experiences ....................... 30 3.4.1 Experience Prototyping ............................................................................. 31 3.4.2 Ethnography .............................................................................................. 32 3.4.3 Persona Creation ....................................................................................... 34 3.4.4 Blueprinting .............................................................................................. 35 3.4.5 Use Cases .................................................................................................. 38 3.4.6 Customer Journey Mapping ...................................................................... 39
3.5 Benefits of Service Design Perspective in the Retail Context ......................... 40 3.6 Summary of the Chapter................................................................................... 42
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4. RESEARCH METHOD ...................................................................................... 45
4.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 45 4.2 Justification of the Selected Corporation ......................................................... 45
4.3 Aims of the Research........................................................................................ 46 4.4 Research Method .............................................................................................. 47
4.4.1 Literature Review ...................................................................................... 47 4.4.2 Interviews .................................................................................................. 48 4.4.3 Site Visits .................................................................................................. 49 4.4.4 Customer Experience Map for VitrA Retail ............................................. 51
4.5 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................... 53 5. EXPLORATION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN VITRA RETAIL STORES ................................................................................................ 55
5.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 55 5.2 General Information About VitrA Corporation ................................................ 55
5.2.1 Corporate History ...................................................................................... 57 5.2.2 Product Range ........................................................................................... 59 5.2.3 Business Breakdown and Market Position ................................................ 61
5.2.4 Design Culture in VitrA ............................................................................ 63 5.3 Development of VitrA Retail ........................................................................... 66 5.4 Research Findings and Analysis ....................................................................... 68
5.4.1 VitrA Retail by VitrA ................................................................................ 68 5.4.2 VitrA Retail by Service Design Methods .................................................. 72
5.4.3 Analysis of Competing Corporations ........................................................ 76
5.5 Summary of the Chapter ................................................................................... 84 6. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS ............................................................... 87
6.1 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 87 6.2 Towards an Analysis: Input Proposal From Service Design Perspective ........ 88
6.3 Opportunities for Future Studies ...................................................................... 91 REFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 93 APPENDICES ........................................................................................................ 101 CURRICULUM VITAE ........................................................................................ 105
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ABBREVIATIONS
EFQM : European Foundation for Quality Management GDP : Gross Domestic Product R&D : Research and Development S-D Logic : Service-Dominant Logic UAE : United Arab Emirates UK : United Kingdom US : United States USA : United States of America USP : Unique Selling Point
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LIST OF TABLES
Page
Table 3.1: Foundational Premises of Service-Dominant Logic ................................ 25 Table 5.1: Eczacıbaşı Building Products Division .................................................... 56 Table 5.2: VitrA Corporate History Timeline ........................................................... 58 Table 5.3: VitrA International Market Share ............................................................ 61
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LIST OF FIGURES
Page
Figure 2.1 : The Progression of Economic Value. ...................................................... 8 Figure 2.2 : Views from Citroën and Apple Showrooms. ........................................ 14 Figure 2.3 : Interactions between customers and staff in Apple Store. .................... 17 Figure 2.4 : Creation of social environment in Toyota Showroom. ......................... 18 Figure 2.5 : Experiencing Apple products through sensory design. ......................... 19 Figure 3.1 : A group of personas............................................................................... 34 Figure 3.2 : Example of a blueprint. ......................................................................... 36 Figure 3.3 : Use Case in service design. ................................................................... 39 Figure 4.1 : Intema Nişantaşı: Facade and Entrance. ................................................ 50 Figure 5.1 : Evolution of the VitrA brand. ................................................................ 59 Figure 5.2 : The “System Fit” concept. ..................................................................... 60 Figure 5.3 : “Istanbul” Collection by Ross Lovegrove. ............................................ 65 Figure 5.4 : “MOD” and “Freedom” Collections by Ross Lovegrove. .................... 65 Figure 5.5 : VitrA retail stores around the world. ..................................................... 67 Figure 5.6 : Interview analysis scheme. .................................................................... 69 Figure 5.7 : Displays of collections by Ross Lovegrove and Matteo Thun .............. 69 Figure 5.8 : Example from a VitrA catalogue. .......................................................... 70 Figure 5.9 : Display of fully-working bathroom faucets. ......................................... 70 Figure 5.10 : VitrA Authorized Service staff working on new bathroom fittings. ... 71 Figure 5.11 : Front-line employees providing sales guidance. ................................. 71 Figure 5.12 : Interior views from Intema Nişantaşı. ................................................. 72 Figure 5.13 : VitrA Experience Map ........................................................................ 75 Figure 5.14 : Jacob Delafon corner at BHV, Paris.................................................... 77 Figure 5.15 : Customer and sales personnel at Jacob Delafon corner. ..................... 78 Figure 5.16 : Salon d’Eau: Facade. ........................................................................... 78 Figure 5.17 : Salon d’Eau: Display Examples. ......................................................... 79 Figure 5.18 : Salon d’Eau: Bathroom furniture displays. ......................................... 79 Figure 5.19 : Salon d’Eau: Information desk and catalogues ................................... 80 Figure 5.20 : Salon d’Eau: Display of a bathtub designed by Philippe Starck. ........ 80 Figure 5.21 : Salon d’Eau: Interior views. ................................................................ 81 Figure 5.22 : Grohe Showroom: Facade and Entrance. ............................................ 82 Figure 5.23 : Display examples from the Grohe Showroom. ................................... 82 Figure 5.24 : The “Shower Fountain” in the Grohe Showroom. .............................. 83 Figure 5.25 : Mezzanine floor of the Grohe Showroom ........................................... 83 Figure 5.26 : Views from the exhibition areas in the mezzanine floor. .................... 84 Figure 5.27 : 3D demonstration of fittings in the Grohe Showroom. ....................... 84
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RETAIL EXPERIENCE IN THE TOTAL BATHROOM SECTOR: A S TUDY ON THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN VITRA RETAIL STORES A ND AN INPUT PROPOSAL FROM SERVICE DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
SUMMARY
The rising importance and dominancy of services in the world economy has caused significant changes in customer-company relationships and in the nature of value propositions. Today, companies, in search of differentiation in a highly competitive business environment, began to focus on the experiences and interactions of their customers.
As a reflection of these transformations, the design activity also shifted its domain from tangible and material artifacts to intangible systems. Along these lines, Service Design emerges as a new design viewpoint with a rich methodological basis to capture and explore customer experiences and a perspective which supports value co-creation between organizations and customers. Furthermore, Service Design approach is a driver for more efficient service delivery and for more personalized solutions that adapt to customer’s changing needs over time.
Service Design perspective and the utilization of Service Design methods appear to be promising in the retail context as well. An important aspect related to this statement is that the retail experience is not one single service, but rather a complex mix of services which consists of multiple touch points. Therefore, a specific perspective is required to capture and create engaging retail experiences. When compared to other design professions, Service Design stands to be more customer-centered and more likely to create a continuous framework for an engaging customer experience. With its systemic and holistic approach to the retail context, Service Design considers and integrates all the tangible and intangible aspects to differentiate organizations’ offerings through the use of in-store conditions and levels of customer engagement.
Hence, the context of this research has been defined as retail contexts. Customer experiences related to the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase phases in a retail setting are at the focus of this research.
This research was based on site visits and observations in order to collect data about the overall customer experience in retail settings and identify service touch-points. To this end, several site visits were conducted to the retail stores of an industry-leader Turkish company in the bathroom equipments sector. The observations made during the site visits provided information about the context and gave critical insights about how the store communicates the brand, and how the various store elements come together to create a holistic experience. Additionally, as a supplement to the observations, interviews were conducted with store managers to gain information about the service delivery system of the organization.
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This study began with a principal inquiry questioning if Service Design could be a new perspective to capture, design and visualize customer experiences, or in other means, the contribution of Service Design in creating compelling customer experiences. In fact, visualization techniques are used as a fundamental element of Service Design. This research explores how Service Design methods can be applied within the retail context to visualize customer experiences. The major outcome of this study was a “Customer Experience Map” which represents the entire service experience from the customer’s point of view and specifies the key aspects of the service delivery process. As a result, the visualization process assisted to define the touch points of the service system and to analyse the interactions between the service and the customer at each stage.
Consequently, this study mainly aims to provide an understanding on the role of design in an experience-based economy within the retail context and to build a case for greater use of Service Design methods in this area.
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BANYO EK İPMANLARI SEKTÖRÜNDE PERAKENDE DENEY İM İ: VİTRA MAĞAZALARINDA MÜ ŞTERİ DENEYİMİ ÜZERİNE BİR ARAŞTIRMA VE HİZMET TASARIMI PERSPEKT İFİNDEN GİRDİ ÖNERİSİ
ÖZET
Dünya ekonomisinde hizmet sektörünün öneminin ve hakimiyetinin giderek artması firma-müşteri ilişkilerinde ve firmaların sunduğu değer önermelerinde büyük değişikliklere sebep olmuştur. Günümüzde firmalar yoğun rekabetin yaşandığı bir iş ortamında farklılık yaratabilmek için müşterilerinin deneyimlerine ve müşterileri ile kurdukları etkileşimlere odaklanmaya başlamışlardır.
Bu değişimlerin sonucunda, tasarımın etkinlik alanı da maddesel ürünlerden sistemlere yönelmektedir. Yaşanan müşteri deneyimlerinin ortaya çıkarılması ve incelenmesini sağlayan zengin metodolojik temeli ve organizasyonlar ile müşterilerin birlikte değer yaratması esasına dayanan bakış açısı ile Hizmet Tasarımı, tasarımın bu yeni etkinlik alanında en çok öne çıkan tasarım disiplini olmuştur. Ayrıca, Hizmet Tasarımı perspektifi, sunulan hizmetlerin verimliliğinin arttırılmasında ve müşterilerin zamanla değişkenlik gösteren gereksinimlerine adapte olabilecek kişiye özel çözümler yaratılmasında en önemli destekleyici unsurdur.
Perakende satış noktaları, Hizmet Tasarımı anlayışı ve Hizmet Tasarımı metodları için gelecek vaat eden uygulama alanlarından biridir. Bu görüşü doğrulayan faktörlerden bir tanesi, perakende deneyiminin birçok hizmeti bir arada içeren karmaşık yapısıdır. Bu yapı, müşteri ile pek çok farklı noktada etkileşime geçmektedir. Bu nedenle, etkili bir müşteri deneyiminin yaratılabilmesi için farklı bir bakış açısına ihtiyaç vardır. Hizmet Tasarımı, diğer tasarım disiplinleri ile karşılaştırıldığında daha fazla müşteri odaklıdır ve bu da bütünsel bir müşteri deneyimi yaratacak çerçeveyi daha etkili biçimde kurgulamasını sağlamaktadır. Hizmet Tasarımı, firmaların perakende satış noktalarının tüm mekansal özelliklerini sistemsel bir bütün olarak değerlendirerek bunları müşteri bağlılığı yaratacak deneyimler doğrultusunda entegre etmektedir.
Perakende mağazalarında müşteri deneyimi yaratan ve etkileyen faktörler çok çeşitlidir. Bu faktörlerin müşteri deneyimi ile bağlantısını inceleyen araştırmalar özellikle pazarlama literatüründe yer almaktadır. Bunlar öncelikle mekansal nitelikleri kapsayan ışıklandırma, koku, müzik, renk gibi faktörlerdir.
Bir diğer grup ise sosyal etkileşimleri içerir. Satış ve proje sorumlularının müşteri ile iletişim becerileri, bilgi düzeyleri, müşteri ihtiyaçlarını anlayabilme ve müşteriyi ikna edebilme yetenekleri, olumlu bir deneyim yaşanması açısından büyük önem taşır.
Her müşterinin mağaza deneyimi farklı sonuçlanabilir çünkü deneyimler kişiye özgü ve subjektiftir. Ancak yine de firmalar mağazalarının mekansal özelliklerinde, teşhirlerinde ya da satış sonrası hizmetlerinde yaptıkları küçük değişiklikler ile sundukları müşteri deneyimini büyük ölçüde değiştirebilmektedirler.
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Banyo algısının değişmesi ile birlikte banyo ekipmanları sektörü günden güne doğallığı ön planda tutan, farklı malzemeleri bir araya getiren, sade, yalın, geleneksel değerleri vurgulayan, modüler tasarımlara yer vermeye başlamıştır.
Banyo ekipmanları sektörü söz konusu olduğunda ürünlerin modelleri ve fiyatları karar aşamasını etkileyen temel unsurlar olarak öne çıkmaktadır. Mağaza içindeki satış aşamasında müşteriyi doğru dinlemek, anlamak ve farklı çözümleri aktarmak temel hedeftir. Ayrıca sürecin her aşamasının takip edilmesi ve müşteri ile devamlı iletişim halinde olunması da büyük önem taşımaktadır.
Dolayısıyla bu araştırma, söz konusu başlıkları perakende mağazalar bağlamında incelemektedir. Sektör olarak banyo ekipmanları sektörü belirlenmiştir; çünkü banyo satın alım süreci sırasında müşteri çok farklı ürün grupları arasından seçim yapmaktadır ve yaşanılan süreç karar verme, planlama ve montaj gibi aşamaları içermektedir. Bu çalışmanın da temel odak noktası, perakende mağazalarında satış öncesi, satış ve satış sonrası süreçleri kapsayan müşteri deneyimidir.
Çalışma süresince çeşitli araştırma yöntemlerinden yararlanılmıştır. Ancak öncelikli olarak bu araştırma, banyo ekipmanları sektörünün önde gelen kuruluşlarının perakende satış noktalarındaki gözlemler üzerine kurgulanmıştır. Mağazalar belirli bir zaman dilimi içerisinde ziyaret edilerek müşteri-satış personeli arasındaki etkileşimler ve mağazadaki çeşitli tasarım öğelerinin bir araya gelmesi ile nasıl bir müşteri deneyimi yaratıldığı incelenmiştir. Araştırmanın perakende satış noktaları bağlamında kurgulanması tüm hizmet sisteminin müşteri bakış açısı ile gözlemlenmesini sağlamıştır.
Araştırmada kullanılan bir diğer yöntem ise mağaza müdürleri ile gerçekleştirilen görüşmelerdir. Bu görüşmelerde mağaza müdürlerine müşteri deneyimi ve hizmet sistemi ile ilgili sorular yöneltilerek firmanın sunduğu hizmetleri kendi bakış açısı ile değerlendirmesi ve aktarması amaçlanmıştır. Burada elde edilen bulgular, mağazalarda gerçekleştirilen gözlemler ile desteklenmiştir.
Görselleştirme araçları Hizmet Tasarımı disiplininin çok önemli bir parçasıdır. Hizmet Tasarımı bazı yaygın tasarım araştırma yöntemlerinin yanı sıra sosyal bilimler alanında sıkça kullanılan yöntemlerden de yararlanmaktadır. Bu araştırma teknikleri, Hizmet Tasarımı perspektifini diğer tasarım yaklaşımlarına kıyasla avantajlı konuma getirmekedir.
Kullanılacak Hizmet Tasarımı yöntemleri, hizmetin sunulduğu çevreye ve sunulan hizmetin çeşidine göre şekillenmektedir. En uygun metodlar belirlendikten sonra hizmet sistemi görselleştirilebilmektedir. “Müşteri Deneyimi Haritası”, bu görselleştirme araçlarına en iyi örneklerden biridir. “Müşteri Deneyimi Haritası” hizmet sisteminin tüm öğelerinin görsel olarak sunulmasını sağlamaktadır. Bu haritalarda müşterinin hizmetten yararlanmaya karar veriş aşamasından başlayarak deneyimlediği bütün evreler kronolojik şekilde sıralanır. Müşterinin düşünceleri, istekleri ve beklentilerine de yer verilerek tamamen müşteri odaklı bir görselleştirme elde edilir. Bu araştırmada, yapılan gözlemler doğrultusunda sıfırdan banyo yaptıracak olan bir müşterinin yaşadığı süreç bir “Müşteri Deneyimi Haritası” haline getirilerek tartışılmıştır.
Araştırmada elde edilen verilere göre banyo ekipmanları sektöründe etkili bir müşteri deneyimi yaratılması, müşterinin sürece dahil edilmesi, sunulan hizmetlerin mümkün olduğunca kişiye özel hale getirilmesi, farklı duyulara hitap eden ortamlar oluşturulması ve mağazadaki görsel ve mekansal öğelerin doğru şekilde kullanılması
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ile sağlanmaktadır. Hizmet Tasarımı perspektifi, tüm bunları gerçekleştirebilecek araçları içermektedir.
Sonuç olarak, bu çalışmanın temel amacı deneyime dayalı bir ekonomide perakende sektörü bağlamında tasarımın rolünü anlamak ve Hizmet Tasarımı metodlarının bu alanda uygulanmasına yönelik örnekler sunmaktır.
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1
1. INTRODUCTION
The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the research subject by highlighting the
key concepts related to the study. After providing some background knowledge, a
short summary of the research method is presented. The chapter concludes with the
aims and structure of the thesis.
1.1 Background of the Research Subject
Everyday, people come across various service offerings in which several encounters
take place with certain products and other people. Even a simple activity such as
buying a cup of coffee is actually a multi-faceted service offering in terms of the
spatial context it is realized and the number of people involved in the encounter.
As a matter of fact, during the last few decades, the importance of services has
increased dramatically as a result of the inevitable shift in the Western economies
towards becoming service economies (Løvlie, 2009). At this point, Joseph Pine and
James Gilmore’s seminal book “Experience Economy: Work is Theater and Every
Business a Stage” (1999) is found valuable due to the effort that it shows a new
approach by putting “experiences” at the core of the value-creation system of the
new economy. Their notion was followed and developed by other research studies
which mainly focused on the “customer experience” concept. These studies have
shown that there are several reasons behind the rising importance of customer
experiences.
To begin with, customers have a greater number of choices today than ever before
and more channels through which to pursue them (Meyer and Schwager, 2007).
Moreover, Prahalad and Ramaswamy (2004) state that outsourcing, and the
convergence of industries and technologies make it much harder for managers to
differentiate their offerings. Last of all, customers are more demanding. They are in
fact looking for personalized solutions to their individual needs, and experiences
with value and meaning along with material fulfillment (Lindsay and Rocchi, 2003).
Consequently, as per Pullman and Gross (2004), companies must find new ways to
2
achieve a competitive advantage particularly by focusing on design and management
of customers’ experiences.
All these rapid changes and developments call for a discussion and a re-definition of
the scope of design as well. Hence, the new design understanding views the world
not as “an aggregate of ill-fitting objects, but rather as a collection of dynamic
processes centered on the experience of people” (Mitchell, 1993). Similarly, with the
advancements in the technological landscape and the digital revolution that started in
the 1970s (Løvlie, 2009), design in this new era is going through a shift in focus
from product and artifact-centered theory to system and service-oriented thinking
which has followed the growth of services in our economy and society (Young,
2008). Therefore, rather than the creation of objects and spaces only, greater
emphasis has been placed on “designing for processes”- the choreography by which
employees complete tasks and interact wth customers (LaRosa and Campbell, 2010).
The position of designers in this shift is very relevant and privileged indeed, because
of their attitude towards planning interactions and finding a balance between the
technologically possible and the socially desirable (Morelli, 2006a; 2007).
Due to the increasing need of solutions with a systemic nature, several new design
fields emerged; such as Interaction Design, Experience Design, Transformation
Design and Service Design. Among these practices, Kimbell (2009) observes that
only Service Design maps directly onto established categories within economics
which identifies the delivery of services as a major economic activity. In the same
manner, King and Mager (2009) imply that unlike traditional design disciplines,
Service Design takes a holistic look at the demand, supply, and strategy of a service.
For that reason, Tether and Stigliani (2010) foresee that Service Design bears a great
potential to grow into a substantial profession and industry in the near future.
As this once minor service sector expands, new challenges arise such as the
establishment of objective methods for the development, research, and creation of
services (Mager, 2008). In this regard, Service Design approach is more beneficial
compared to other design approaches as it provides organizations a proven set of
tools which unfolds what customers want and how to orchestrate systems, processes,
and resources to produce the desired result (King and Mager, 2009).
In conclusion, this study seeks to explore the “customer experience” concept from
the Service Design perspective. Eventually, an empirical investigation of the
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researched issues is performed by applying Service Design methods within the
context of the retail stores of an industry-leader Turkish company, VitrA.
1.2 Method
Throughout the research, a wide range of academic literature was reviewed to gain
an understanding of the “customer experience” and “Service Design” concepts.
Furthermore, in order to collect information about the selected corporation, VitrA,
other sources which include magazines, corporate documents, reports, catalogues,
forums and customer review websites were critically studied.
After the construction of a theoretical background for the study, semi-structured
interviews were carried out with Intema retail store managers. These series of
interviews aimed to show how various actors who were part of VitrA’s service
delivery system perceived and interpreted their own service offerings.
In comprehensive investigations that involve complex features, it is common to
extend and validate data collection by using multiple sources of evidence (Yin,
2003). In the present study, this was done through site visits to the retail stores of
VitrA and some other leading firms in the total bathroom sector and observation of
their service systems.
The final phase of the research included a synthesis of various Service Design
techniques. In fact, some recent applications of Service Design methods to capture
customer experiences such as “use cases”, “blueprints” and “experience prototypes”
were examined to develop a “customer experience map” for VitrA. It should also be
noted that these methods had to be adapted to the specific context of bathroom retail
environments, so the mentioned techniques were modified at certain points in order
to capture the right data. The proposed map therefore provides distinct insights about
the total service delivery system beginning from the in-store experiences to the post-
purchase services.
1.3 Structure and Aims of the Study
This thesis consists of the following structure:
Chapter 1 (Introduction) serves as an introductory background to the research
subject. The methods carried out through the different stages of the study are
4
summarized and finally, in order to set up a framework for the investigation, the
structure and aims of the study are also included in this chapter.
Chapter 2 (Definition and Importance of Customer Experience) initially focuses on
the experience-based economy and highlights the rising importance of “experiences”.
Furthermore, several definitions of the customer experience concept are provided and
briefly explained. This background information then leads to a review of the
“customer experience” concept in the retail context. The significance of customer
experiences in retail settings is discussed and five determinants of retail experiences
are explored.
Chapter 3 (Service Design as a New Design Perspective) aims to clarify the unique
nature of services and to build a comprehensive framework for “Service Design”. To
this end, first, all the major aspects of Service Design are studied. This section
includes an overview of service-dominant logic, concepts related to services and the
emergence and definition of “Service Design”. Following this, the most commonly
used Service Design techniques to capture customer experiences are explored. As a
conclusion to the chapter, benefits of Service Design perspective in creating retail
experiences are discussed.
Chapter 4 (Research Method) presents the research techniques used throughout the
different stages of the study. This chapter also states the aims of the study as well as
justifying the selected corporation, VitrA.
Chapter 5 (Exploration of Customer Experience in VitrA Retail Stores) introduces
VitrA corporation and elucidates the development of VitrA retail. Additionally, this
chapter analyses the findings of the research under the related sections of the study.
Chapter 6 (Discussion and Conclusions) includes a brief overview of the conclusions
derived from the study. Insights obtained throughout the research are discussed with
reference to the research aims. The chapter concludes with the opportunities for
future studies on the subject.
Drawing upon these concepts, this research study fundamentally aims to provide an
understanding of the role of design in an experience-based economy within the scope
of the total bathroom sector and related retail settings. Another purpose of this study
is to emphasize the potential of Service Design methods in capturing and creating
retail experiences.
5
Thus, this research will hopefully pave the way to a comprehensive identification of
customer experience in the total bathroom sector and to systematic applications of
Service Design techniques in this area.
6
7
2. DEFINITION AND IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
In this chapter, the “customer experience” concept is studied in detail to provide an
understanding of the significance of customer experience within the scope of recent
economic transformations.
2.1 Introduction
The concept of “customer experience” has been thoroughly explored in the
management and marketing literatures due to the need to re-define the relationship
between customers and companies (Berry, 2001; Schmitt, 2003; Berry, Carbone and
Haeckel, 2003; Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2003; 2004). In fact, this need has
occurred as a result of the economic changes in the last few decades. Therefore, this
chapter aims to explain first the rising importance of “experiences” and the transition
towards the “Experience Economy”. Understanding the factors behind this
transformation also clarifies why “customer experience” has such a central role
within the new economy. Following this explanation, several definitions of
“customer experience” are provided and fundamental aspects of the concept are
discussed.
The context of this research study has been identified as retail settings. For that
reason, building an understanding of the nature of retail experiences and the impacts
of retail experience strategies on customer activities is critical. To achieve this,
various determinants of customer experiences in the retail context are stated,
encompassing ‘experience clues’, ‘dramatic structure’, ‘front office-back office
coordination’, ‘personal interactions’, and finally, ‘atmospherics and sensory design’.
Each element is studied in detail with specific examples from the most successful
retailers.
8
2.2 Rising Importance of Experience: The Transition Towards “Experience
Economy”
In his book “Quality and Competition” (1955), economist Lawrence Abbott claimed
that what people really desire were not products, but satisfying experiences. About
half a century later, Joseph Pine and James Gilmore (1999) advanced the idea that we
are in an “Experience Economy”, in which the orchestration of memorable events for
customers is the key to differentiating one’s offering from those of competitors,
escaping commoditization and attaining growth. With this framework, the concept of
“customer experience” came more relevantly to the fore, as a distinct economic
offering which emerges as the next step after commodities, goods and services in the
“progression of economic value” (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). Figure 2.1 shows the
four economic offerings and the progression of value among them regarding
competitive position, needs of customers, and pricing.
Figure 2.1 : The Progression of Economic Value (Pine and Gilmore, 1999).
Pine and Gilmore (1999) define experiences as “offerings that occur whenever a
company intentionally uses services as the stage and goods as props to engage an
individual”. They further characterize four types of experiences based on the degree
of customer participation: Entertainment (Passive participation, absorption),
9
Educational (Active participation, absorption), Esthetic (Passive participation,
immersion) and Escapist (Active participation, immersion) (Pine and Gilmore,
1999). More recent studies in the management literature tend to describe experiences
in terms of key attributes or in terms of managerial implications and oucomes. For
instance, Gentile, Spiller, and Noci (2007) empirically investigate the specific role of
different experiential features in the success achieved by some well-known products.
Whereas Pullman and Gross (2004) identify elements of experiences that involve
anticipation, progression over time, emotional involvement, and uniqueness.
The focus on “experience” is certainly a new point of view that organizations are
discovering, along with the rising domination of services in the world’s economies.
Hence, increasingly, many service organizations are placing the customer experience
at the core of their service offering (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Haeckel, Carbone, and
Berry, 2003; Pullman and Gross, 2004; Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). In this new
perspective, co-creation of value through personalized experiences is the emerging
opportunity space (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2003); and the emphasis is on creating
meaningful, memorable customer experiences (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Meyer and
Schwager, 2007; Schmitt, 2003). As a matter of fact, the meaning of value and the
process of value creation are rapidly shifting from a product- and firm centric view
(Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004) towards the organization’s capacity to co-create
unique experience environments with customers (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2003).
To reiterate, firms can no longer compete solely on providing value through their
core products, but rather they must create long-term, emotional bonds with their
customers through the co-creation of a cohesive, authentic and sensory-stimulating
total customer experience that resonates, pleases, communicates effectively and
differentiates the organization from the competition (Bitner et al., 2008; Berry and
Carbone, 2007).
According to Noci et al. (2007), “total customer experience” plays a fundamental
role in determining the customers’ preferences, which then effects their purchase
decisions. Providing compelling customer experiences is also seen as an important
factor influencing customer loyalty, for customers are more likely to make repeat
purchases and give positive word of mouth when they had a good experience
(Badgett, Boyce, and Kleinberger, 2007). Thus, business success lies not only with
10
the perceived incremental value of a business’s products and services, but also with
the perceived value of the experience the business gives its customers (Moore, 2002).
To summarize, it is important for firms to focus on customer experience, because
differentiation strategies based on service and price are no longer sufficient (Verhoef
et al., 2009). In fact, Berry, Carbone and Haeckel (2002) state that it is very difficult
for competitors to copy the holistic nature of these experiential designs and the
emotional bonds they form between companies and customers. Consequently, the
experience is the ultimate conveyer of the business’s value proposition (Moore,
2002) and for that reason, it becomes inevitable for an organization to position itself
in compliance with the principles of the new “Experience Economy”.
2.3 Definitions of the “Customer Experience” Concept
The “experience” paradigm has been the subject of several disciplines such as
psychology, human-computer interaction, cognitive science, management and
marketing. While the former three accentuated the sensual and interactive dimension
of experiences, the latter two explored the strategic use of “experiences” as a means
to support the brand, differentiate service offerings, and build new types of business
models (Voss, Roth, and Chase, 2008). As these studies further developed, the terms
“customer experience” and “customer experience management” were introduced.
The first notable discussion regarding customer experience was presented by
Holbrook and Hirschmann (1982), as they theorized the experiential aspects of
consumption. Furthermore, Schmitt (1999), proposed the implementation of
“Experiential Marketing” by using five “Strategic Experiential Modules”: sensory
experiences (sense); affective experiences (feel); creative cognitive experiences
(think); physical experiences, behaviors and lifestyle (act); and social-identity
experiences that result from relating to a reference group or culture (relate). Finally,
Berry, Carbone and Haeckel (2003) suggested that the application of customer
experience management principles evokes a “value perception that determines brand
peference”.
Adding to the above, numerous definitions of “customer experience” can be found in
the recent literature. For instance, Meyer and Schwager (2007), define “customer
experience” as follows:
11
“The internal and subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect
contact with a company. Direct contact generally occurs in the course of purchase,
use, and service and is usually initiated by the customer. Indirect contact most often
involves unplanned encounters with representatives of a company’s products,
service or brands and takes the form of word-of mouth recommendations or
criticisms, advertising, news reports, reviews and so forth” (Meyer and Schwager,
2007).
A second related definition is that “The customer experience originates from a set of
interactions between a customer and a product, a company, or part of its
organization, which provoke a reaction. This experience is strictly personal and
implies the customer’s involvement at different levels (rational, emotional, sensorial,
physical, and spiritual)” (Gentile, Spiller, and Noci, 2007). To imply, both
definitions emphasize that an experience involves customers, is subjective in nature
and originates from a set of interactions or encounters.
As a result, “customer experience” is a critical concept for organisations to build
loyalty to brands, channels and services (Badgett, Boyce, and Kleinberger, 2007)
and to create long-term competitive advantage (Shaw and Ivens, 2005). In the light
of these insights, the main discussion regarding customer experiences is about how
customer-engaging experiences can be created and managed.
2.4 Significance of Customer Experience in the Retail Context
The ability to create a desire that will make customers come back to a business again
is a real challenge for businesses. Certainly, there are different ways to achieve this.
Despite the general opinion, loyal customers result more from how they feel about
the total experience they receive than from what they rationally think about a
company’s products and services (Berry and Carbone, 2007).
This idea is also valid in the case of retail contexts. In fact, according to Verhoef et
al. (2009), creating superior customer experience is one of the central objectives in
today’s retailing environments. Moreover, retailers around the world have embraced
the concept of customer experience management, with many incorporating the notion
into their mission statements (Verhoef et al., 2009). There are many examples of
retail stores that serve as the means to entice new customers and an anchor to hold
existing customers (Kumar et al., 2006). For instance, in his book “The Starbucks
12
Experience”, Michelli (2007) argues that creating a distinctive customer experience
for their customers forms the basis of the success story of Starbucks. Similarly, in
2001, Apple initiated the retailing of experience offer through the “Apple Store
Experience”. Both of these examples support Schmitt’s (2003) argument which states
that “experiential retail strategies facilitate the creation of emotional attachments,
which help customers obtain a higher degree of possessive control over in-store
activities”.
Building upon this framework, it is critical to highlight that a customer experience is
impacted by a combination of experiences which evolve over time, including search,
purchase, consumption and after-sales phases of the experience, as well as the
customer’s interaction in the store; either involving multiple retail channels or
repeated experiences within a channel (Neslin et al., 2006). Therefore, customer
experience management is a retailer’s strategy to engineer the customer’s experience
in such a way as to create value both to the customer and the firm (Verhoef et al.,
2009).
In conclusion, retailers need stores that will draw people in for the experience
(Samalionis and Moed, 2009) because today’s shoppers want the total customer
experience (Berry, 2001). Thus, companies should focus on “themed stores” which
allow customers to experience the offerings through in-store design features and
encounters with the staff. This is key to enhance consumers’ emotional connections
to the organization and to provide a point of differentiation.
2.5 Determinants of Customer Experience in Retail Settings
Gupta and Vajic (2000) argue that an experience occurs when a customer has any
sensation or acquires knowledge from some level of interaction with different
elements of a context created by a service provider. Berry, Carbone and Haeckel
(2003) on the other hand, use the term “total experience”, to describe a unity of all
the feelings customers take away from their interaction with a firm’s goods, services,
and “atmospheric” stimuli. Therefore, from an experience-oriented perspective, the
objective strategically shifts to “designing service settings and orchestrating service
clues that enable customers to co-create unique experiences” (Patrício, Fisk and
Cunha, 2008).
13
Bitner et al. (1992) defines service experiences as “the outcomes of the interactions
between organizations, related systems or processes, service employees and
customers”. Drawing upon this definition, the context of this research has been
defined as retail environments because besides displaying the tangible offerings of a
company, retail stores are significant spaces where all the above-mentioned
interactions can be clearly observed. Hence, this research study derives a set of
determinants which customers interact with in retail store contexts. These
determinants are grounded in the research literature and can be listed as; 1)
Experience clues, 2) Dramatic structure, 3) Front office-Back office coordination, 4)
Personal interactions, and 5) Retail atmospherics and sensory design. In order to
have a better understanding of the conceptual realm of these determinants as well as
how they relate to each other, all of these topics will be discussed in subsequent
sections, with specific examples.
2.5.1 Experience Clues
Berry, Carbone and Haeckel (2003) suggest that effectively designing and managing
the customer experience requires presenting a series of clues that function holistically
to meet or exceed customer expectations. Anything that can be perceived or sensed,
or recognized by its absence- is an experience clue (Berry, Carbone, and Haeckel,
2002). The total customer experience as influenced by these clues evokes perceptions
of service quality and value along with perceptions of the brand itself; which in turn,
influence preferences and loyalty (Berry, Carbone and Haeckel, 2003).
From this perspective, Berry and Carbone (2007) state that experience management
requires defining a targeted customer perception and consistently delivering the
specific feelings desired by customers through orchestrating all the clues that
comprise the experience. The clues that make up a customer experience are
contextualized by several researchers. For instance, Berry, Wall and Carbone (2006)
identify three main categories for experience clues:
1) Functional clues are defined as the “what” of the experience; reflecting the
reliability, functionality and technical quality of the offering.
2) Mechanic clues are emanated from things and include sights, displays, colors,
smells, sounds, tastes, textures…etc. They concern the sensory presentation of
the service.
14
3) Humanic clues come from the behavior and appearance of service employees
(Berry, Wall and Carbone, 2006).
These clues form the context in which an experience is created (Zomerdijk and Voss,
2010). Leading companies like Citroën and Apple utilize experience clues in their
showrooms in order to convey experiences that reflect the brands’ value
propositions. Figure 2.2 shows examples of how Citroën and Apple uses clues such
as multimedia tools, graphic elements (i.e Apple logo in the entrance, product visuals
on the walls), color, lighting and interior design elements (i.e circular staircase in the
Apple Store).
Figure 2.2 : Views from Citroën and Apple Showrooms.
Pullman and Gross (2004) refer to this as the physical and relational context. Retail
stores are good examples to such contexts. As physical environments in which many
experiential encounters occur, retail stores have the ability to influence behaviors and
employ a strong impact on the customer’s perceptions of service quality (Bitner,
1992). Therefore, managing experience clues is an important strategy for establishing
and maintaining customer preference for a brand (Berry and Carbone, 2007).
15
2.5.2 Dramatic Structure
A recent research by Zomerdijk and Voss (2010) state that service delivery processes
in experience-centric services can benefit from the concept of “dramatic structure”,
which includes the sequence, progression, and duration of events. A majority of the
studies regarding dramatic structure are based on concepts from psychology,
sociology and their various subspecialties, such as cognitive psychology and
behavioral decision theory (Cook et al., 2002).
Several comprehensive investigations on this subject matter has been carried out by
Hansen and Danaher (1999), Chase and Dasu (2001), Cook et al. (2002), and
Verhoef, Antonides, and De Hoog (2004) respectively. To begin with, Hansen and
Danaher (1999) suggest that the end of an experience has a greater impact on a
customer’s perception and overall judgements of quality than the beginning. Their
study shows that the performance in the final is highly influential on repeat purchase
intentions and customer loyalty as well (Hansen and Danaher, 1999). Secondly, as
per Chase and Dasu (2001), customers do not remember every single moment of an
experience; instead, they recall a few significant moments with an overall assessment
of the experience that is based on the trend in the sequence of pain and pleasure, the
high and low points, and the ending. Building upon this idea, Cook et al. (2002) state
that these three factors can be utilized to design and enhance the customers’
experience and their recollection of the process after it is completed. Both of these
studies mention four general principles to offer insights into better service
management, as listed below:
1) A service encounter should finish strong because the end is what remains in the
customer’s recollections.
2) People prefer a sequence of experiences that improve over time, so that the
undesirable experience should be eliminated early in the service encounter.
3) Pleasant experiences should be broken into multiple stages, and unpleasant ones
should be combined into a single stage.
4) Commitment should be built through choice by letting the customer control the
process as people are more comfortable when they believe they have some control
over a process (Chase and Dasu, 2001; Cook et al., 2002).
16
Perceptions are the defining element of the service encounter (Cook et al., 2002). For
that reason, all of the above principles should be considered in the creation of
memorable customer experiences to influence customers’ perceptions of the service
delivery experience. Finally, with the management of the pleasurable content of an
experience (Chase and Dasu, 2001) and positioning of “positive peak experiences”
(Verhoef, Antonides, and De Hoog, 2004) it is possible to further elevate customer
satisfaction in a service delivery process.
2.5.3 Front Office-Back Office Coordination
The operational processes in service organizations are generally executed by two
units: the front office and the back office. The ability to facilitate coordination
between the front office and back office is an inevitable aspect for a consistent and
efficient service system. Hence, Zomerdijk and Voss (2010) state that, in order to
deliver superior customer experiences, the whole service supply chain, not just the
front office, should be involved in understanding the customer experience and their
role therein. Although the intensity of this involvement varies according to the
necessities of the service system, in most cases, decoupling the back office from the
front office to maximize efficiency or operational excellence may cause coordination
problems and harm the front stage experience (Metters and Vargas, 2000).
Several strategies are available to establish coordination between the front office and
back office parts of service organizations, but a common solution to get departments
to work together toward a common purpose is to cast each operating unit as a
service supplier to the next downstream operation unit, thereby establishing an
internal “supplier-customer” relationship (Chase and Hayes, 1991). Chase and
Hayes (1991) further state that this strategy increases the communication between
different departments and closely links back office employees to the front stage
experience; which result in improved service delivery processes.
2.5.4 Personal Interactions
One of the unique characteristics of services is the active participation of the
customer in the service production process (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006).
Every service interaction takes place between a variety of actors; and therefore have
a “social” dimension. The first type of personal interaction that comes to mind during
a service delivery process in a store is the front-line service employee-customer
17
interaction. The second type of interaction occurs among customers themselves as
customers often visit a retail space with friends or family members (Verhoef et al.,
2009). Hence, in many retail settings, services are produced almost exclusively
through such personal interactions and customers’ experiences are highly influenced
especially by their contact with the company staff (Cipolla and Secomandi, 2010).
Building upon these insights, Cook et al. (2002) argue that front-line service
employees represent the organization in the customers’ eyes so that they are the
critical link from the service organization to the customer. They have important roles
such as understanding customer needs and interpreting customer requirements in the
instance they occur (Cook et al., 2002). The social skills, the way of dressing and the
manner of speaking of front-line employees have a great impact on the customer’s
service experience (Koivisto, 2009). For example, Apple Store employees are an
integral part of the overall experience that the brand creates. They all wear the same
blue t-shirt with the Apple logo and they all carry iPods. As demonstrated in Figure
2.3, this unity forms a closer connection with the customers.
Figure 2.3 : Interactions between customers and staff in Apple Store.
Additionally, LaRosa and Campbell (2010) suggest that front-line employees have a
critical effect on the overall customer experience and by empowering employees to
solve problems, it is possible to turn a negative experience into a positive one. It is
therefore essential to give front-line employees appropriate roles, and to clarify the
divisions of their responsibilities (Koivisto, 2009).
Another perspective to the participation of people in services was discussed by
Edvardsson and Olsson (1996). According to them, the intangible service becomes
tangible for the customer in the encounter with the front-line employees. Therefore,
for many customers, the employees are by and large synonymous with the service
(Edvardsson and Olsson, 1996). Front-line employees are also important tools
18
towards “personalization”. As per Cipolla and Manzini (2009), employees are
empowered to customize the service encounter to the individual characteristics of
customers.
However, especially in a retail environment, there are multiple elements to consider
besides the usual customer-employee interactions. Today, as online platforms
become widespread, it is possible for customers to “interact” with other customers by
posting customer reviews on company websites or on different blogs or chat rooms,
which is a new form of the traditional word-of-mouth communication (Verhoef et al.,
2009).
Toyota Showroom in Paris is an environment that comprises different spaces where
visitors can interact with each other, as shown in Figure 2.4. For instance, there is a
specific corner where visitors can play an interactive game together. Furthermore,
Toyota provides special cards and colored markers so that visitors can design their
“dream car of the future”. The designs are then exhibited on the large board next to
the drawing tables.
Figure 2.4 : Creation of social environment in Toyota Showroom.
Consequently, service providers have turned their attention back to “people” and the
social aspects of the service system. With front-line employees who can listen to
19
customers and understand their demands, organizations can deliver more
personalized services and therefore ensure service efficiency.
2.5.5 Retail Atmospherics and Sensory Design
Verhoef et al. (2009) argue that the customer experience construct is holistic in
nature and involves the customer’s cognitive, affective, emotional, social and
physical responses to the retailer. The five senses (sight, sound, smell, taste, and
touch) are considered as crucial elements to evoke such responses (Zomerdijk and
Voss, 2010) and are therefore direct pathways to customers’ emotions (Berry,
Carbone and Haeckel, 2003).
Thus, sensory design, or design that stimulates all senses, is expected to be an
important element in the development of engaging and memorable customer
experiences (Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Zomerdijk and Voss, 2010). From this point of
view, the effective management of atmospheric variables is crucial to address the
five senses and evoke particular emotions and responses (Hoffman and Turley,
2002). As per Puccinelli et al. (2009), atmospherics, or the retail store environment,
refer to both tangible and intangible aspects of a retail store, and can alter the
customer experience. In Figure 2.5, it can be seen that Apple effectively applies the
principles of sensory design in its stores. They provide specific corners around the
store where people can see, touch and use their products. This way, customers not
only learn the functional features of the products, but live the experience of using the
products.
Figure 2.5 : Experiencing Apple products through sensory design.
20
Research on store atmospherics has shown that scents, music, tactile input and color
can interact with customer perceptions to affect behavior (Puccinelli et al., 2009).
Similarly, retail atmospherics produce specific cognitive and emotional effects in the
customer that enhance purchase propensity (Turley and Milliman, 2000). Hence,
retail atmospherics and sensory design are considered to be important inputs to create
compelling retail environments.
2.6 Summary of the Chapter
The main purpose of this chapter has been to highlight the significance of customer
experiences, specifically in the retail context. The subjects studied in this chapter
have intiated from the broad perspective of the “customer experience” concept and
later focused on the “retail context” with an emphasis on the significance of
experiences in retail settings.
First, rising importance of experiences and the transition towards an experience-
based economy was discussed with reference to Pine and Gilmore’s (1999)
framework. Afterward, several definitions of “customer experience” were reviewed.
This introductory framework was then adapted to the retail context and a set of
design determinants for the creation of memorable retail experiences were explored.
Eventually, some possible pathways that various retailers have used to engage their
customers were presented.
Consequently, considering the aims of this research, this chapter serves as a starting
point to investigate the role of design in the “Experience Economy”, within the retail
context. On the other hand, traditional design research methods are not sufficient to
contextualize the complex system of interactions that constitute an experience.
Therefore, a different design perspective is required, which introduces new methods
and concepts to interpret the intangible aspects involved in retail experiences. Hence,
in the following chapter another crucial concept, “Service Design” will be subject for
clarification. Relevant concepts and terminology will be reviewed in order to build a
conceptual background from the existing knowledge in the field. Furthermore,
emerging Service Design methods will be explained, with implications about the
benefits of Service Design viewpoint in the retail context.
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3. SERVICE DESIGN AS A NEW DESIGN PERSPECTIVE
This chapter aims to examine “Service Design” as an emerging discipline and a new
design perspective.
3.1 Introduction
Services represent approximately 80 percent of the U.S. GDP and a growing
percentage of the GDPs of countries around the world (Bitner et al., 2008; Saco and
Goncalves, 2008; Løvlie, 2009). This indicates a change in the economic basis of
industrial nations from manufacturing to the provision of information and services
(Maffei et al., 2005; Mager, 2008). However, despite the dominance of services in
the new economy, a rapid development of Service Design did not begin until 1990’s
(King and Mager, 2009).
Therefore, in this chapter, the “service” concept will be studied from two
perspectives: 1) “Service” as an economic unit of exchange and a source of value, 2)
“Service” as the subject of the design activity. Thus, the basics of Service Design
will be covered- the new service-dominant logic, terminology related to services,
how service design emerged as a new design perspective, what service design is, and
service design methods.
All phases of this research study refers to the framework of Service Design thinking
and application of Service Design techniques. As mentioned in the previous chapter,
customer experiences are subjective and involve complex emotional, cognitive and
physical encounters. Thereupon, Service Design approach is very useful especially in
capturing customer experiences in a holistic way. Consequently, this chapter
emphasizes the potential of Service Design in capturing and creating experiences in
the specific context of retail settings.
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3.2 The Nature of Services
The unique nature of services constitutes a basis for various disciplines which aim to
define and categorize them. Therefore, numerous definitions which focus on
different characteristics of services are provided in the contemporary management,
marketing and design literatures.
Vargo and Lusch (2008b; 26) describe service from an operational perspective as
“the application of specialized competences (...) through deeds, processes, and
performances for the benefit of another entity or the entity itself”. However, King
and Mager (2009) emphasize the relational perspective by defining service as a
Unique Selling Point (USP) that cannot be duplicated without the knowledge,
context, and history that is shared between a company and its customer. Besides
these, another fundamental definition has been stated by Grönroos (2000), according
to whom “Services are processes consisting of a series of activities where a number
of different types of resources are used in direct interaction with a customer, so that
a solution is found to a customer’s problem”. Eventually, it is possible to conclude
that a service is defined in terms of customer-determined benefit and is inherently
customer oriented (Vargo and Lusch, 2008a).
In order to provide an understanding of services, it is also useful to examine how the
nature of services is different than to that of products (Løvlie, 2009). Within this
context, the first significant difference is the process-based nature of service
offerings. For example, Goldstein et al. (2002) suggest that, “unlike a product,
service components are often not physical entities, but rather a combination of
processes, people skills, and materials that must be appropriately integrated”.
Furthermore, as per Bitner et al. (2008), “unlike goods, services are dynamic,
unfolding over a period of time through a sequence or constellation of events and
steps”. Other areas where products and services show diverse characteristics are
stated by Morelli (2002) as follows:
“Relationship between users, designers and service providers- While product
manufacturers generally do not have contact with their customers, service providers
usually shape the service together with users, who, in fact, participate in the
production process.
Production and consumption times- Products are produced and consumed at
different times, while services come into existence at the same moment they are
23
being provided and used. Services are processes developed and delivered over a
certain period of time and their configuration varies according to their use.
Material intensity- While products are generally tangible objects, services are
composed of intangible functionalities. Because of their immaterial components
services cannot be stored, unlike products, nor can their ownership be transferred, as
happens when products are sold” (Morelli, 2002).
The above mentioned characteristics of services lead to further discussions about the
main characteristics of services which design and development tools have to address.
As a matter of fact, Morelli (2009b) argues that the design process has to undertake
the implications of three main characteristics of services:
1) Services are intangible;
2) Services are based on the direct relationship between provider and
customer;
3) Customers participate to the production of the service (Eiglier and
Langeard, 1977; quoted from Morelli, 2009b).
Referring to the second and third features, the social dimension is an indispensable
component of service offerings (Kimbell, 2009). In the light of this framework,
Morelli (2009b) underlines the fact that while manufacturing was based on
mechanical processes, services are based on social interaction; they are systemic in
their nature, and imply the concurrence of heterogeneous factors.
In conclusion, a service comprises a greater involvement of customers in the
production process, greater difficulties in maintaining quality control standards, an
absence of inventories, the relative importance of time factors, and a particular
structure of distribution channels (Ainamo, 2008). All of these unique characteristics
of services require an integrated production and delivery system, which constitutes
the predominant expertise of Service Design.
3.3 Designing for Services
According to Kimbell (2010), designing for services means “the conceiving,
planning, and realizing of the dynamic systems and experiences in which one service
is exchanged for another in an ongoing process, the value of which is constituted in
practice”. The conscious and consistent application of design thinking to services has
many short and long term benefits and increasingly, organizations seek to develop
24
and implement effective services as a way of differentiating themselves from their
competitors (Hicks, 2010).
Morelli (2009a) highlights the fact that there are some intrinsic characteristics of
services such as simultaneous production and consumption (Morelli, 2009b) and
high level of personal intensity (Normann, 1991) which distinguishes their design
process from the traditional production processes. For this reason, when designing
for services, enacting a human-centered design approach (Kimbell, 2009; Løvlie,
2009), is the most critical factor.
Following this idea, Morelli (2009a) suggests that designers should create a
“participatory story” when they are designing for services, in which “each user is
given more space to move and behave according to his/her own individual needs,
cultural background and behavioral attitudes”. In the same manner, service designers
should pay extensive attention to the service interfaces with which various
stakeholders engage (i.e. service ‘touch points’) (Kimbell, 2009) and the nature of
the experience with these ‘touch points’, because the success of a particular service
relies on the quality of this subjective experience (Solomon et al., 1985).
Therefore, in this section, Service Design is examined with proper attention to
“service-dominant logic”, the emergence and evolution of Service Design, and the
definition of Service Design.
3.3.1 Service-Dominant Logic
The changing focus towards services was analysed profoundly by Stephen Vargo and
Robert Lusch (2004, 2008a) who combined their background in marketing with
theories drawn upon sociology and economy. They identified a shift from a goods-
centered model of exchange to a “service-dominant logic” focused on ongoing
relationships, intangible resources and specialized skills, knowledge and processes
(Vargo and Lusch, 2004; 2008a; 2008b). Table 3.1 summarizes the foundational
premises of service-dominant logic.
25
FP1 Service is the fundamental basis of exchange
The application of operant resources (knowledge and
skills), “service,” as defined in S-D logic, is the basis for all
exchange. Service is exchanged for service
FP2 Indirect exchange masks the fundamental basis of exchange
Because service is provided through complex combinations
of goods, money, and institutions, the service basis of
exchange is not always apparent
FP3 Goods are a distribution mechanism for service provision
Goods (both durable and non-durable) derive their value
through use – the service they provide
FP4 Operant resources are the fundamental source of competitive advantage
The comparative ability to cause desired change drives
competition
FP5 All economies are service economies
Service (singular) is only now becoming more apparent with increased specialization and
outsourcing FP6 The customer is always a co-
creator of value Implies value creation is
interactional FP7 The enterprise cannot deliver
value, but only offer value propositions
Enterprises can offer their applied resources for value creation and collaboratively (interactively) create value
following acceptance of value propositions, but cannot create
and/or deliver value independently
FP8 A service-centered view is inherently customer oriented and
relational
Because service is defined in terms of customer-determined
benefit and co-created, it is inherently customer oriented
and relational FP9 All social and economic actors are
resource integrators Implies the context of value
creation is networks of networks (resource integrators)
FP10 Value is always uniquely and phenomenologically determined
by the beneficiary
Value is idiosyncratic, experiential, contextual, and
meaning laden
Table 3.1: Foundational Premises of Service-Dominant Logic (Vargo and Lusch, 2008a).
26
The above premises lead to several inferences. Perhaps, the most significant one is
the emphasis on the interactivity of the value creation process. As a matter of fact,
with service-dominant logic, the firm and the customer must be considered in a
relational context (Vargo and Lusch, 2008a); where customers, end users, and other
stakeholders are always involved in co-creating value (Kimbell, 2010). Secondly,
unlike the industrial production-consumption dyad in which the value created by the
producer is “destroyed” by the customer (Ramirez, 1999), Vargo and Lusch (2008a)
argue that in service-dominant logic, “value is always determined by the beneficiary
of service- in the unique experience of that benefit- and, thus, it is inherently
customer oriented”.
In conclusion, all of these inferences imply a general change in perspective. This
emerging service-centered viewpoint strongly contradicts with the traditional goods-
centered view because the appropriate unit of exchange is no longer the “static and
discrete tangible good”, but the “dynamic and continuous intangible service” (Vargo
and Lusch, 2004).
3.3.2 Concepts Related to Services and Service Design
Value creation and interaction are central to Service Design (Miettinen, 2009). As a
matter of fact, Service Design brings a totally unique perspective to these two
processes and redefines them within the frontier of some core concepts such as “co-
creation”, “service interface”, “service encounter”, “moment of truth”, and
“touchpoint”. It is thus substantial to provide brief explanations about each of these
concepts, in order to understand the social, managerial and operational aspects of
Service Design.
The view of value co-production (or co-creation) in service activity has advanced
with the contibutions of Normann and Ramirez (1993a) and Ramirez (1999). Their
studies called for a radical revision of the existing approach to customer’s
involvement in services; implying that value is not simply “added”, but is mutually
“created” and “re-created” among actors (Ramirez, 1999). Thus, the new approach
directly places the emphasis on customer-company interaction (Prahalad and
Ramaswamy, 2004), and defines value creation by the experience of a specific
customer, at a specific point in time and location, in the context of a specific event
(Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2003). In the same manner, Morelli and Tollestrup
27
(2007) claim that customers who were once external to the production system or
passive receivers of its outcomes are now involved as active co-producers. Referring
back to the previous section, this viewpoint is also supported by Vargo and Lusch’s
(2008a) sixth foundational premise presented as “The customer is always a ‘co-
creator’ of value”; which means that the people using the service are involved in the
production process together with the organization that delivers it (Løvlie, 2009).
Every process of co-creation has an interactivity dimension and thereby an interface.
This brings forward the second substantial concept related to Service Design:
“Service Interface”, described as “the tangible and visible part of a service made up
of people, products, information and environments which will support the customer
experience” (Sangiorgi, 2009). An important component of the service interface is
the “Service encounter”, that refers to the physical or virtual space in which the
service provider(s) come in contact with the customers (Morelli, 2009a). This
concept has been introduced by Solomon et al. (1985) to describe a dyadic
interaction between two actors; in which each act is a purposive transaction whose
outcome is dependent upon the coordinated actions of both participants. These
actions are composed of a set of learned behaviors which rely on the demands of the
specific service environment (Solomon et al., 1985). Morelli (2009b) takes this view
further by characterizing each service encounter as a point of contact between service
providers and customers. This particular point of contact or “moment” in which the
process of value co-production occurs is “the moment of truth” (Normann, 1991).
Several encounters and moments are distributed over a certain time period to
compose the service process, and when all of these moments are connected, the
customer journey is formed (Koivisto, 2009).
The last concept related to service design is “Service Touch point”. Touch points are
individual tangibles or interactions that make up the total experience of a service
(Moritz, 2005) and are essential to understanding the customer journey (Mager,
2008). Touch points can be spaces, objects, processes, and people, through which the
service is experienced (Miettinen, 2007). Thus, in Service Design, all touch points
need to be considered in totality and crafted in order to create a clear, consistent and
unified customer experience (Moritz, 2005).
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3.3.3 Emergence of Service Design
For many years, service design occupied some blurred areas in different disciplines
(Morelli, 2009a), because in the past, manufacturing was the main source of
investment and research and development activities concentrated on the optimization
of processes and products (Mager, 2008). Hence, as per Sangiorgi (2009), the
practice and culture of design focused on to the physical and tangible output of the
traditional industrial sectors. On the other hand, by the early 1990s, objective
methods began to be developed for the development, research, and creation of
services (Mager, 2008). As a matter of fact, the outcomes of the growing economic
role of the service sector in most of the developing economies are summarized by
Mager (2009) as follows:
“All over the world successful and innovative companies are starting to realize the
need for service-specific approaches, methods, roles and structures in order to make
use of the potentials of the service business, and they are beginning to systematically
invest in research development and design, to create new departments and roles
within their companies in order to continuously innovate their service offerings”
(Mager, 2009).
Consequently, in parallel with the “dominant economic vision of the service sector”
(Maffei et al., 2005), Service Design began to create its own ground and gain the
status of an independent disciplinary area (Morelli, 2009a).
The strength and evolutionary path of Service Design lies in the contributions
coming from a variety of disciplines (Holmlid, 2007; Morelli, 2009a). However,
among these disciplines, three of them built the directions that the studies on Service
Design have been developed along: management and engineering science, interaction
design, and marketing (Morelli, 2006b; Morelli, 2009a; Sangiorgi, 2009). The first
direction focuses on the adaptation of a service-oriented approach in order to manage
comprehensive customer solutions (Ojasalo and Ojasalo, 2009). The second proposes
the design of service experience, interface and identity as the primary area of
intervention (Maffei et al., 2005). Finally, the third direction has introduced
significant concepts like service quality (Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml, 1990),
service encounter (Solomon et al., 1985), experience (Pine and Gilmore, 1999), and
servicescape (Bitner, 1992); which are referred to as service marketing initiated
concepts (Fisk et al., 1993).
29
Although these three directions have several intersections, the contributions coming
from them are quite different in nature and content (Morelli, 2009a). Nevertheless,
these differences enable to understand people, systems, strategy, and business models
in a comprehensive manner (Smith, 2010) and thus, enrich the practice of Service
Design.
3.3.4 Definition of Service Design
The terminology and concepts discussed in the previous chapter construct a basic
idea of what Service Design is. However, for a profound understanding, Service
Design Network presents the following definition:
Service Design;
•Aims to create services that are useful, useable, desirable, efficient, and effective,
•Is a human-centered approach that focuses on customer experience and the quality
of service encounter as the key value for success,
•Is a holistic approach that considers in an integrated way strategic, system, process,
and touch point design decisions,
•Is a systematic and iterative process that integrates user-oriented, team-based
interdisciplinary approaches and methods in ever-learning cycles (Original source:
Service Design Network; quoted from Saco and Goncalves, 2008).
Drawing upon this definition, there are three critical features in Service Design. One
of them is the holistic approach to customer needs and experiences (Brown, 2008;
Mager, 2009; King and Mager, 2009). As per Samalionis and Moed (2009), a holistic
perspective looks to support people’s modes of use, not just specific activities, and
then matches customers’ interactions to the right channels. Secondly, as a discipline,
Service Design illustrates the virtues of people-centeredness and co-creation as
fundamental processes (Segelström and Holmlid, 2009). Therefore, Service Design
begins by understanding customers’ needs, rather than analysing tasks (Samalionis
and Moed, 2009). Finally, the last important aspect of Service Design is the
multidisciplinary collaboration, which allows and encourages competencies from
different fields come together (Moritz, 2005).
Lammi and Hämäläinen (2010) emphasize that service experiences are produced by
physical and abstract, functional and emotional, as well as spatial and temporal
elements. Whichever form a service experience takes, it must be consistent, easy to
use and have strategic alliance (Hollins and Hollins, 1991). As a matter of fact,
30
Service Design is growing into a field defined by the use of situated knowledge,
experience, human contexts as critical agents (Akama, 2009); with the ability to
research, envisage, and orchestrate experiences that reach people through many
different touch points, and that happen over time (King and Mager, 2009).
In conclusion, Løvlie (2009) describes Service Design as a way to “humanize
services” and improve people’s everyday lives. It is also a process of creating
tangible contexts for intangibles, in different channels (Moggridge, 2007). Thus,
Service Design not only focuses on the optimization of the general experience and
value of a service, but on designing the tangible elements that enable the desired
experiences to occur in a coherent way as well (Sangiorgi, 2009).
3.4 Service Design Methods for Capturing Customer Experiences
The need for service innovation in the world’s economies and the current focus of
businesses on creating value through customer experiences suggest a need for
innovative methods to analyse, design and represent services (Bitner et al., 2008).
Thus, as Morelli (2006b) implies, “designers are more and more challenged to
represent their solutions specifying the relationship with the context, the network of
actors shaping the solution and the areas of intersection of actors’ interests in which
the solution have more chance to succeed”. In this regard, some challenges occur
such as the difficulty to capture qualitative and subjective characteristics of the
service (Morelli, 2009b), the focus of the Service Design process on systemic aspects,
and the introduction of new variables such as time, interaction between people and
other hidden dimensions related to cultural mind frames and social habits (Morelli,
2006a).
In addition, when dealing with services, new actors with different backgrounds are
involved besides the traditional technical actors like service providers, organizations
and final users and their action needs to be appropriately addressed with adequate
forms of communication (Morelli and Tollestrup, 2007). The communication within
such an extended system or representation of features such as time and interaction
cannot use the same tools designers are used to work with when dealing with the
traditional production system (Morelli, 2009b). For this reason, Morelli (2006b)
states that designers should redefine their methodological approach based on a
31
systemic perspective and develop an appropriate toolbox containing new and existing
techniques.
These techniques can be borrowed from different disciplines and adapted (Morelli
and Tollestrup, 2007). For instance, a set of design tools have been adopted mainly
from interaction design disciplines and practices (Sangiorgi, 2009). Visualising
interactions of a service system makes it possible to see patterns, generate insights
and uncover opportunities within the data, and provides clues about what the service
provision might look like and how it might be implemented (Bailey, 2009).
Segelström and Holmlid (2009) describe this visualization process as “tangibilizing
the service performance”. Thus, the main and distinctive focus of service design
tools concerns the design, description and visualization of experiences, including the
potentials of different interaction modes, paths and choices (i.e. Use Cases, Customer
Journey Mapping etc.) or the representation of the complexity of the service
organization (i.e. Blueprinting) (Maffei et al., 2005). No matter how complex the
service system is, as per Morelli (2009b), the clarity of the chosen tool or set of tools
is critical; “likewise engineers and technial people in the production departments, all
the other actors, including customers must understand what their role is in the
system, what they are expected to do”.
Consequently, visualization techniques are used as a fundamental element of Service
Design. For a better understanding, six commonly used Service Design methods will
be briefly explained with examples from practical applications.
3.4.1 Experience Prototyping
“Prototyping” has always been an indispensable tool in product design to inform
both design process and design decisions. This argument is also true for Service
Design. Nevertheless, as stated in the beginning of the chapter, services differ from
products in the sense that they are intangible, take place over time and have multiple
touch-points, media and modes; thus, they are prototyped in a different way than
products (Live|work, 2008; Samalionis, 2009).
An efficient way to do rapid service prototyping is “Experience Prototyping”, which
involves customers, experts and clients in developing and refining services
(Live|work, 2008). Buchenau and Suri (2000) describe this method as any kind of
representation, in any kind of medium, that is designed to understand, explore or
32
communicate what it might be like to engage with a product, service, space or
system. Concisely, the aim of experience prototyping is to test the technical
feasibility, the logistics, customer experience and financial impact of a service
proposition in a cheap and quick way (Miettinen, 2009). Furthermore, by prototyping
experiences it becomes evident which parts of a service are most significant and
which parts need to be interconnected to deliver a compelling service offer
(Samalionis and Moed, 2009).
In the same manner, Buchenau and Suri (2000) identify three different kinds of
activities within the design and development process where Experience Prototyping
is valuable:
1) To develop an understanding regarding the essential factors of an existing
experience and about the important aspects of the whole or parts of the relationships
between people, places and objects as they unfold over time.
2) In the exploration and evaluation of design ideas.
3) In the communication of design concepts and ideas: By enabling others to engage
directly in a proposed new experience, Experience Protoyping provides common
ground for establishing a shared point of view (Buchenau and Suri, 2000).
Diana et al. (2009), suggest that experience prototypes are one of the tools closest to
reality because the interaction with the service is observed and recorded reproducing
the place, situation and condition in which the service will actually take place.
Therefore, it brings “a subjective richness” to bear on design problems (Forlizzi,
2008), allowing the designer to “successfully (re)live or convey an integrated
experience” (Buchenau and Suri, 2000). In conclusion, experience prototypes that
look and behave like an end service through activities such as role-playing or
simulation of experiences with touch points enable stakeholders from various
backgrounds to engage with, and evaluate a service concept from their specific
perspective or area of responsibility (Samalionis, 2009).
3.4.2 Ethnography
“Ethnography” is a method originating from the field of anthropology, widely used
in many design disciplines sharing a strong focus on the experience of people in their
own context during all stages of the service delivery process (Stickdorn and Zehrer,
2010). It is an increasingly common research approach in Service Design as well
33
because it studies the activities of people in their everyday settings as opposed to a
laboratory or experimental setting, provides a holistic approach and helps develop a
descriptive understanding from the point-of-view of the group studied (Blomberg et
al., 1993). Thus, in recent Service Design literature, references to ethnographic
methods are common (Parker and Heapy, 2006; Kimbell and Seidel, 2007; Miettinen
and Koivisto, 2009).
Service Design aims to make empathic connections with future users of a service and
to put people in the center of design activities (Segelström et al., 2009). Building
upon this idea, Hämäläinen and Lammi (2009) emphasize the fact that acquiring a
profound awareness of customer needs and an understanding of customer encounters
in diverse service situations is essential in the early stages of the Service Design
process. More specifically, they state that a comprehension of customer needs helps
companies identify the aspects of the existing service that require further
development, and therefore, create a more engaging and meaningful service entity
(Hämäläinen and Lammi, 2009).
To be able to achieve this, service designers use empathic research methods that are
various appropriations of ethnography (Segelström et al., 2009; Morelli, 2007). For
example, a simplified research method adopted from ethnography which observes
people in the places where they operate is the “Context of Use Co-research
Methodology”, defined by Lindsay and Rocchi (2003). They suggest that it is a
promising technique to achieve a deeper understanding of specific and personal
‘needs’, ‘wants’ and ‘desires’ and gain adequate knowledge on how people act and
interact in particular contexts (Lindsay and Rocchi, 2003). Other similar analytical
methods adapted from ethnographic research can be stated as video ethnographic
studies and cultural probes (Morelli, 2007).
The characteristics that all ethnographic studies share in common are that they are
dynamic, interactive, and include a direct contact between researchers, designers and
people (Morelli, 2009b). Moreover, as Morelli (2006b) states, they offer ways of
capturing highly context-related information into the design process and deciphering
the complex pattern of rational and emotional choices guiding the behavior of social
actors.
In conclusion, the use of ethnographic techniques is increasingly becoming part of
the designers’ competences (Morelli and Tollestrup, 2007). The effective application
34
of these techniques provide a rich representation of data that can be used as a support
to the design process (Morelli, 2009b); and enables to develop unique value
propositions for the customers (Miettinen, 2009).
3.4.3 Persona Creation
Personas are fictional and hypothetical user archetypes based on in-depth research
(Long, 2009; Moritz, 2005; Cooper, 1999). They include names, personalities,
behaviors, and goals that are representative of a unique group of individuals
(Miettinen, 2009). Persona creation is very relevant to Service Design as it “enables a
more detailed and individual understanding of a group of clients” (Moritz, 2005),
“highlights the human-based nature of services” (Segelström and Holmlid, 2009),
and “serves as a reference to the design team in the creation of human-human and
human-artifact interactions” (Mager, 2008). Several examples to personas are shown
in Figure 3.1.
Figure 3.1 : A Group of Personas (Engine, 2009).
Personas can be used during different stages of the design process to act as stimulus
to fuel idea generation and to archetypically represent each segment of an
organization’s market (Engine, 2009). However, Long (2009) implies that using
personas during the early stages of a design project (i.e. research and
conceptualization) provides a significant advantage because they are especially
35
helpful in communicating user requirements and maintaining a consistent user focus.
According to him, using personas focuses more attention on the end-user and
provides a valuable user-centered input early in the development cycle of the design
process (Long, 2009).
Another significant characteristic of this method is that each persona assumes the
attributes of the groups they represent: from their lifestyles, behaviors and attitudes
(Engine, 2009), to their needs, desires, habits and cultural backgrounds (Tassi, 2009).
Hence, by creating personas, design teams can have a clear perception of ‘who’ they
are designing the solution for and how that character wants to interact with the
design (Long, 2009).
3.4.4 Blueprinting
Service Blueprinting is a method introduced by Lynn Shostack (1982; 1984) to
model the service processes from the customer’s perspective (Spraragen and Chan,
2008). It is a map or flowchart which represents all the transactions constituting the
service delivery process (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006). According to Bitner
et al. (2008), in comparison to other process-oriented design techniques and tools,
service blueprints are first and foremost customer-focused; allowing firms to
visualize the entire service and its underlying support processes, points of customer
contact, and the physical evidence associated with their services from their
customers’ perspective. This strong customer focus allows the members of an
organization to develop a common ground from which all the key functional and
emotional customer experience clues can be orchestrated (Bitner et al., 2008).
Building upon this framework, the blueprint is a participatory project planning and
management tool (Engine, 2009) to inform service managers about the features of the
service, ranging from the flow of use to technical infrastructure (Moggridge, 2007)
and to provide an overview so that employees and internal units can gain insight as to
how their roles fit into the integrated whole (Bitner et al., 2008). Blueprints are
useful for developing ways to improve customer experience, improving back-office
internal customer-supplier relationships, setting service standards, identifying fail-
points, and eliminating process redundancy and duplication (Buttle, 2009).
Furthermore, Bitner et al. (2008) state that blueprints also help to reinforce a
customer-orientation among employees as well as clarify interfaces across
36
departmental lines. For these reasons, service blueprint is a fundamental tool to
organize the service design process and to execute an adequate planning activity for
services (Morelli, 2009b).
There are numerous elements in a service that a blueprint should graphically and
narratively describe. The first one is the time element in a service; involving the
sequence of events of a service experience, its durations and timings (Live|work,
2008). This is essential for determining parallel stages and concurrencies, total time,
and therefore cost (Hollins, 2003). Additionally, as per Morelli (2002), a blueprint
should specify “which functions are performed by the users and which by the service
provider, which functions are automated and which rely on human actions, in what
kind of (physical and virtual) spaces the service is located, and whether actions are
based on movement between spaces or are located in a single place”.
Some of the actions that take place during the service process are in full view of the
customer and thus referred to as front stage (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006).
On the other hand, there is also a back stage; which details the processes that are not
seen by the customer, but are fundamental for the service (Morelli, 2009b). In a
blueprint, the front and back stage activities are separated by a line of visibility, used
as a conscious guide to determine which provider actions the customer should see
and be aware of during the service transaction (Spraragen and Chan, 2008). Figure
3.2 is an example of a blueprint for a hotel service which encompasses all the
mentioned elements.
Figure 3.2 : Example of a blueprint (Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons, 2006).
37
Bitner et al. (2008), introduces five components of a typical service blueprint, as also
presented in the above figure:
1) Physical Evidence- include all the tangibles that customers are exposed to which
can influence their quality perceptions.
2) Customer Actions- include all of the steps that customers take as part of the
service delivery process chronologically.
3) Frontstage/Visible Contact Employee Actions- include the actions of frontline
contact employees that occur as part of a face-to-face encounter.
4) Backstage/Invisible Contact Employee Actions- include all of the other contact
employee actions, both those that involve non-visible interaction with customers (i.e.
telephone calls) as well as any other activities that contact employees do that are part
of their role responsibilities.
5) Support Processes- include all of the activities carried out by individuals and units
within the company who are not contact employees but need to happen in order for
the service to be delivered (Bitner et al., 2008).
In addition to the basic elements of a traditional blueprint, recent research on
Blueprinting explores how to introduce new features to the blueprint for capturing
emotional qualities. This new blueprint proposed by Spraragen and Chan (2008) can
be used in a variety of scenarios such as designing a new service, evaluating a
service, preparing the client for their service engagement, training new service
employees, and improving and maintaining a current service. The added features
include notations for relationship monitoring, a hazard line, and an emotion indicator
which are interesting contributions to express the potential emotional states of
customers during the key moments of a service (Spraragen and Chan, 2008).
As a result, the blueprint is an operational tool which has preserved its technical
language and its potentially endless degree of detail (Diana et al., 2009). This
detailed depiction can comprise a single step in the customer process as well as the
entire customer service experience (Bitner et al., 2008). In any case, “Service
Blueprinting provides tools and techniques both for focusing on the individual
dimensions of the customer-provider relationship and for supporting an integrated
view of all aspects of the relationship” (Spraragen and Chan, 2008). For all these
reasons, it is considered as a highly useful method for service development.
38
3.4.5 Use Cases
The method of Use Cases have been borrowed and adapted from software
engineering to analyse interactions in the services and to describe the most critical
instances and occurences in a scenario (Morelli, 2002; 2009a).
A service system cannot be fully understood unless a detailed representation of the
functional qualities of the service offering is provided. Within this perspective,
Morelli and Tollestrup (2007) suggest that Use Cases are fundamental representation
tools, as they visualize actors and sequence of actions in a service step by step and
provide technical information about the specific functions, allowing for a deeper
understanding of the system in its details.
While use cases in information science are described in a diagrammatic way and with
a plain language description of the sequences of events and logical links, the same
technique can be used in Service Design to provide a broader amount of service
specification (Morelli, 2002; 2009b). Hence, when transposed in Service Design
process, a more detailed graphic representation is needed, concerning;
• Physical or virtual spaces in which the interaction is developed,
• Physical movements,
• The specification of actors in the system,
• The correspondence between the user experience in the interaction with the service,
described in timelines or in the form of storyboards (Front office),
• The mechanism that allows the service system to support such interaction (Back
office)
• Thus, a detailed structure of the system components, procedures and the actors’ role
for each specific use condition (Morelli, 2007; 2009a; 2009b).
Figure 3.3 illustrates a detailed representation of Use Cases that explains each phase
of the service process.
39
Figure 3.3 : Use Case in Service Design (Morelli et al., 2009a).
3.4.6 Customer Journey Mapping
A “customer journey” consists of critical encounters that take place over time and
across different interaction channels (Morelli, 2009a). The concept of the customer
journey enables the design team to create a rich picture of the complete process of a
service with its emotional, material and procedural components, thus making it
possible to model it (Mager, 2008). Following this argument, Hämäläinen and
Lammi (2009) suggest that modelling an existing journey, even without new ideas,
helps the company understand the service from the customer’s perspective and gain a
clearer and more concrete sense of the encounter. There are in fact a variety of ways
in which customer journey mapping and the representation and analysis of journeys
are used:
• As a framework for modelling and redesigning services and interactions.
• To reveal the real and informal touch points of a service.
• To identify and design-out non-value adding steps.
• To design-in better process interfaces with the right people, resources and
organizations.
• As an approachable user-engagement technique.
• An insight tool for managers and as a counterpoint to the familiar operational
process maps that they use.
• An audit tool from which user experience metrics can be developed.
40
• A planning and training solution as part of service production (or delivery)
(Engine, 2009).
Maps are mainly used for describing the structure that lies behind the service, for
representing the actors and the devices involved, for articulating the offering and for
eliciting the connections between all these elements according to the existing
relations, hierarchies and exchanges (Diana et al., 2009). Similarly, a customer
journey map is a visual representation of how the customer perceives and
experiences the service interface along the time axis (Miettinen, 2009); which
illustrates touch points, service interactions and gestures of users having experienced
a service (Engine, 2009). Mapping customer journeys is one of the simplest and most
useful approaches to highlight the points of interaction (Bailey, 2009), to understand
the gaps in a service, and to identify and design opportunities for innovation (Engine,
2009). After a representation of the customer journey is created, it then becomes
possible to break down the journey into its constituent parts and explore how each
part can be eliminated, improved or redesigned as appropriate (LaRosa and
Campbell, 2010).
More specifically, Diana et al. (2009) state the fundamental features of customer
journey maps as follows:
“Customer journey maps give emphasis to the service touch points and using them to
structure the representation. The focus is on the physical devices and on the
generated fluxes of information to convey the description of the whole process and
experience phases. This kind of synthesis could also become an input for other
phases, for example for all the situations that require a sharing of the service delivery
process, not just between designers and stakeholders but also between stakeholders
and service providers, or service staff and users” (Diana et al., 2009).
To summarize, according to Parker and Heapy (2006), this method is key to
integrating the organization of services around customers, and to combining
distributed organizational resources to create experiences and outcomes.
3.5 Benefits of Service Design Perspective in the Retail Context
Increasingly, retailers recognize that greater understanding of customers can enhance
customer satisfaction and retail performance (Puccinelli et al., 2009). An important
aspect related to this statement is that the retail experience is not one single service,
41
but rather a complex mix of services which consists of multiple touch points.
Therefore, a specific perspective is required to capture and create holistic retail
experiences.
Sanders (2006) states that it is now time to move away from the traditional design
disciplines which are founded on the materiality of the artifact (graphic, product,
space, software, architecture...etc.) and instead organize around human experience
domains to support a harmonious relationship between people and their
environments. Service Design is a discipline that can create such domains as it
focuses on experiential issues related to a wide range of offerings (Morelli, 2009a),
and constitutes an understanding of the way the customer experience unfolds over
time through interactions at many different touch points (Bitner et al., 2008).
Moreover, according to Løvlie and Reason (2010), Service Design is a driver for
more efficient service delivery, since it places value for the customer at the heart of
business development. Building upon these ideas, Kimbell (2009) argues that Service
Design sees all of the interfaces or touch points with the customer as something to be
thought of holistically, and therefore it is a significant tool for organizations to offer
an intentionally-designed experience.
Certainly, in the case of designing a retail context, there are several possible paths
that designers may take and diverse design approaches they can follow such as
experience design, interaction design or interior design. However, among all these
disciplines, only Service Design provides a holistic perspective with a profound
awareness of systems and subsystems of relationships and interactions (Mager,
2009). Furthermore, Saco and Goncalves (2008) state that Service Design employs
features like co-creation, constant reframing, multidisciplinary collaboration,
capacity-building, and sustaining change. Most important of all, Service Design as a
discipline provides a proven set of tools and methodologies that can be used to
discover what customers want and how to orchestrate systems, processes, and
resources to produce the desired results (King and Mager, 2009). Hence, this rich
methodological basis is the most prominent element of the Service Design discipline.
In conclusion, retail stores are significant touch points as they are the contexts where
people experience an organization’s offerings. Therefore, within the retail context, it
becomes critical to understand the needs and expectations of the people who will buy
and use those offerings, which demands some knowledge of their activites, thoughts,
42
feelings, and values (Fulton Suri, 2004; Miettinen, 2007). With the significant
benefits that Service Design perspective brings- such as the innovative research
methods, the systemic and holistic approach and the constant dialogue it builds
through co-creation, it becomes the ultimate strategy for organizations to create
engaging retail experiences.
Certainly, in the case of designing a retail context, there are several possible paths
that designers may take and diverse design approaches they can follow such as
experience design, interaction design or interior design. However, among all these
disciplines, only Service Design provides a holistic perspective with a profound
awareness of systems and subsystems of relationships and interactions (Mager,
2009). Furthermore, Saco and Goncalves (2008) state that Service Design employs
features like co-creation, constant reframing, multidisciplinary collaboration,
capacity-building, and sustaining change. Most important of all, Service Design as a
discipline provides a proven set of tools and methodologies that can be used to
discover what customers want and how to orchestrate systems, processes, and
resources to produce the desired results (King and Mager, 2009). Hence, this rich
methodological basis is the most prominent element of the Service Design discipline.
In conclusion, retail stores are significant touch points as they are the contexts where
people experience an organization’s offerings. Therefore, within the retail context, it
becomes critical to understand the needs and expectations of the people who will buy
and use those offerings, which demands some knowledge of their activites, thoughts,
feelings, and values (Fulton Suri, 2004; Miettinen, 2007). With the significant
benefits that Service Design perspective brings- such as the innovative research
methods, the systemic and holistic approach and the constant dialogue it builds
through co-creation, it becomes the ultimate strategy for organizations to create
engaging retail experiences.
3.6 Summary of the Chapter
This chapter consisted of three major sections. The first one was about “services”
and their unique characteristics; in which the “nature” of services has been discussed
with specific emphasis on how services differed from products. The second section
investigated the service concept from the viewpoint of design, encompassing a
comprehensive review of service-dominant logic, concepts relevant to services and
43
the emergence and definition of “Service Design”. The chapter continued with
service design methods such as “Blueprinting”, “Use Cases”, “Persona Creation”,
“Customer Journey Mapping”, “Ethnography” and “Experience Prototyping” and
derived implications about the benefits of Service Design perspective in retail
contexts. The study of the mentioned topics mainly referred to marketing and Service
Design literatures, with minor input from social sciences.
As a result, this chapter provided a conceptual background on “Service Design” and
emphasized the potential of Service Design methods to capture and create engaging
customer experiences. In the next chapter, a brief overview of the research aims will
be presented, together with the methods that are utilized to explore the studied
research topics. A majority of these research techniques are adapted versions of the
Service Design methods introduced in this chapter. Therefore, the following phases
of this research will serve to corroborate the advantages that Service Design methods
provide over traditional research techniques.
44
45
4. RESEARCH METHOD
This chapter aims to unfold the methods followed throughout the research process
with a brief explanation of each technique and the ways they contributed to the study.
The research aims and justification of the studied corporation, VitrA are also
presented.
4.1 Introduction
One of the primary objectives of this study has been stated as ‘to emphasize the
potential of Service Design methods in capturing and creating experiences’. Hence,
the research method was structurally based on emerging Service Design methods and
a variety of common research techniques. Keeping in mind the fact that particular
research problems require different approaches, it was very important to choose the
appropriate set of methods that properly contributed to the way this study was
designed and conducted. This is necessary for any design activity, but is particularly
important in the design of systemic solutions, where the contextual conditions are
always unique (Morelli, 2006b). Thus, throughout this study, a variety of common
research methods has been utilized and in some cases, the research method has been
adapted to address the specific conditions of the retail context.
4.2 Justification of the Selected Corporation
The total bathroom sector was one of the most appropriate sectors to conduct this
research for a number of reasons. First of all, Turkey is one of the biggest and most
prominent ceramic sanitary ware and tile producers in the world. Turkish ceramics
industry has always been one of the most powerful sectors in terms of production
capabilities, quality, export shares, and its driving role in the country’s economy.
Second of all, Turkey is the largest ceramic sanitary ware producer in Europe
(followed by Italy and Spain) with its 18% share and about 22 million pieces/year
production capacity (Okyay, 2010). After deciding on the sector, the next essential
46
step was selecting the corporation that would provide the necessary sources to
conduct the research. Thus, VitrA was chosen as the subject of this study. At this
point, describing the underlying reasons for this choice is meaningful.
To begin with, VitrA has always been the leader in the domestic market and one of
the strongest brands in global markets. In terms of total production, VitrA is the fifth-
largest manufacturer in the world (Eczacıbaşı, 2009), and VitrA’s main factory in
Bozüyük is the largest ceramics facility under one roof in the world (VitrA, 2010b).
Moreover, it is the first company in the bathroom equipment business to obtain an
EFQM quality award (Erbilek, 2007).
Another aspect that supports the preference of VitrA is that, it is the one of the few
brands in global markets offering every component of the bathroom, combining
design qualifications with the total bathroom concept (Erbilek, 2007). In fact, it is the
first brand to offer acrylic bathtubs produced in Turkey and the tenth-largest
producer of these products (VitrA, 2010b).
To summarize, the above-mentioned characteristics prove that VitrA has been a
pioneer in its sector since its initiation and has achieved many “first”s with its
consistent dedication to innovation. Therefore, studying and exploring a market
leader such as VitrA will provide comprehensive insights about the research topics,
as well as a detailed understanding of the total bathroom sector.
4.3 Aims of the Research
In the light of the provided background information and framework, the aims of this
study can be summarized in the following way:
• Understand the role of design in an experience-based economy within the
retail context.
• Provide an understanding of how retail experience strategies impact on the
customer in-store and post-purchase activities.
• Emphasize the potential of Service Design methods in capturing and creating
retail experiences by highlighting the benefits Service Design methods
provide over traditional techniques (i.e. questionnaires).
• Identify the nature of the retail experience in the total bathroom sector in
order to build a case for greater use of Service Design techniques in this area.
47
• Provide a “toolbox” of mixed methods that can be combined to capture data
from the holistic retail setting.
• Provide an understanding of customer experience in the total bathroom sector
with reference to VitrA retail stores.
4.4 Research Method
This study has entailed various research techniques as it proceeded, from the initial
phase to analysing and interpreting the results. Consequently, the methods which
have been used during this study can be outlined as; (1) literature review, (2) semi-
structured interviews, (3) site visits, (4) customer experience mapping.
4.4.1 Literature Review
A relevant, critical, and comprehensive literature review is a distinct and required
section of any research study. According to Blaxter et al. (1996), a “literature
review” is “a critical summary and assessment of the range of existing materials
dealing with knowledge and understanding in a given field”. They state the four main
functions of a literature review as follows:
1) To give reasons why the topic is of sufficient importance for it to be researched,
2) To provide the reader with a brief up-to-date account and discussion of literature
on the issues relevant to the topic,
3) To provide a conceptual and theoretical context in which the topic for research
can be situated,
4) To discuss relevant research carried out on the same topic or similar topics
(Stevens et al., 1993; quoted from, Blaxter et al., 1996).
Moreover, especially in the case of interdisciplinary studies, besides functioning as a
thorough review of an existing literature, this method becomes an important tool for
a comparative study of subjects from diverse fields (Mutlu, 2003). Thus, the
interdisciplinary nature of this study makes the literature review the most essential
phase of the research activity. This is mostly an outcome of the multi-faceted
structure of the investigated research topics, which comprise a rich variety of
concepts including “customer experience”, “Service Design”, “Service Design
methods” and “retail experience creation”. It is in fact evident that a diversity of
literatures and perspectives are necessary to explore these concepts in order to
48
acquire a comprehensive awareness. Therefore, throughout this study, essential
topics, and their significant variables have been studied in the extent of relevant
academic literatures such as “Service Design”, “Interaction Design”, “Management”,
“Marketing”, and “Environmental Psychology”.
The second part of the literature review is an attempt to address the intangible
aspects of the research. To this end, customer review websites are analysed as they
entail “more experiential comments” (Puccinelli et al., 2009). These online sources
are also important due to the fact that they directly reflect what customers think of
the specific touch points of a service system.
In conclusion, the “literature review” method plays a significant role in clarifying an
ambiguous concept, which guides the researcher with grasping ideas from
terminological and methodological perspectives. Hence, this inquiry provides helpful
links with the Service Design literature; which constructs a unique framework for the
clarification of the ‘customer experience’ concept in retail contexts.
4.4.2 Interviews
The primary method of data collection in this research study was semi-structured
interviews with executives and employees involved in the design and delivery of the
services in VitrA Corporation. Overall, three interviews were conducted in October
2010; typically lasting half an hour to 45 minutes each.
The first interviewee was the Retail Stores Manager, who leads all the store
managers and sales representatives. In fact, the retail store manager is the chief
contact person who can provide specific information about each retail store, as well
as the operational details regarding the service system of VitrA Retail. The other two
respondents were the managers of two selected VitrA retail stores, who, as
significant front-line employees, were in an optimal position to report on the degree
to which strategic initiatives are being accomplished (Cook et al., 2002). In the
interviews, the discussion was allowed to evolve around the topics from the
interview protocol, enabling the specific customer experience and Service Design
concepts to emerge and be elaborated upon when relevant. It should be also noted
that, these concepts were not addressed directly in order to prevent leading questions
and to allow the interviewees to provide all the relevant information on the subject
matter. Throughout this procedure, six questions were prepared and inquired to the
49
respondents. All of the interviews were recorded and notes were taken during the
interviews. Afterward, original manuscripts of the recorded interviews were typed
and documented.
According to King and Mager (2009), all the creative and visual abilities of Service
Design only make sense when built on the foundation of a service strategy that is
integrated in the mission of the company. Therefore, the conducted interviews served
as significant evidence to test firm-specific information regarding the application of
design elements to create engaging customer experiences and services. Moreover, the
interviews provided specific information about VitrA that would not be possible to
gather from the literature alone.
In conclusion, the main motive behind the utilization of interviews as a research
method was to find out the gaps in VitrA’s service system; which include the areas
where the customer satisfaction is low and the parts of the customer journey where
improvements can be made, from the viewpoint of the organization itself. As a result,
the answers to the interview questions are definitely a major source to evaluate how
VitrA interprets and perceives its own service system.
4.4.3 Site Visits
The customer experiences related to the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase
phases in a retail setting are at the focus of this study. Site visits enable to outline the
important central features of the service from the customer’s point of view.
Therefore, the main goal of conducting site visits as part of this research was to
collect data about the overall customer experience in VitrA retail stores and to
identify the service touch points. In fact, the observations made during the site visits
were used a source of information about the context when interpreting the research
findings.
The challenge in this research process was to set the right boundaries and investigate
the right set of experiential aspects so that in the end, concrete outcomes on the
service quality could be derived. Thus, this section of the research proposes that a
thorough awareness of the context, which is VitrA’s retail stores, can contribute to
develop a framework or a tool for the organisation to better interpret the service
system and customer experience creation processes.
50
The first chosen site was Intema Nişantaşı, the largest retail store of VitrA, located at
a corner where two main streets intersect, as shown in Figure 4.1. It consists of six
floors and has a total surface area of 1750 m2. The investigation was conducted in
October 2010 and took three days.
Figure 4.1 : Intema Nişantaşı: Facade and Entrance.
The other site visits were conducted in November 2010 and included the exploration
of Duravit, Grohe, and Jacob Delafon showrooms in Paris. All these three brands are
strong competitors of VitrA in the market. For that reason, their showrooms were
included to this phase of the research, in order to make a comparative analysis and to
be able to generate a more profound overview of the bathroom retail sector in the
world. During site visits, the experiential elements of retail settings were approached
through the aspects discussed in Chapter 2:
• Experience clues
- Functional clues (product design, material, workmanship/production
quality and the technological inputs regarding the applications of these)
- Mechanic clues (building design, layout, colors, graphic
elements/signage)
- Humanic clues (front-line employees)
• Atmospherics and sensory design
51
• Dramatic structure
• Personal interactions
These aspects were studied as a supplement to the interviews, enabling to obtain
further insights on the design approaches and to look for additional corroborating or
contradicting evidence. All of these explorations in the site visits also provided
critical insights about how the store communicates the brand, and how the various
store elements come together (or do not come together) to create a holistic
experience and engage the customer.
As a result, in the context of this research study, the visited VitrA retail store was the
central link to corroborate the information provided by the store managers in the
interviews and to reveal the elements of the store experience that can be improved.
To sum up, placing the research activity in the retail stores gave direct feedback from
the experience, and direct interactions with customers enforced a comprehension
towards their core motivations and needs.
4.4.4 Customer Experience Map for VitrA Retail
In Chapter 3, a brief introduction about the emerging Service Design methods was
presented. “Mapping” an existing customer journey or experience is a research
technique that answers the need to represent the sequence of encounters and
interactions between the actors of a service system (Mager, 2008; Hämäläinen and
Lammi, 2009; Diana et al., 2009; Miettinen, 2009). For developing such
visualizations, first of all, the service architecture, which is a complex system and
arrangement of objects, dialogues, information, content, processes and navigation
needs to be understood (Miettinen, 2007). As a matter of fact, visualization of the
service architecture of VitrA Retail has been one of the challenges of this research.
The primary aim of creating an “experience map” in this study was to represent the
entire service experience from the customer’s point of view and to specify the key
aspects of the service delivery process. Therefore, the initial step was creating a
persona to build the service scenario upon. In the light of the observations made
during the site visit, a customer profile who could be a representative of VitrA’s
target group was generated. Then, as the next step, the customer journey was
constructed in the form of a purchase scenario in which the generated persona told
52
the whole process from her viewpoint, including her thoughts, emotions,
expectations and comments.
According to Miettinen (2007), Service Design keeps the focus on the lived
experience of the customer journey and enables organizations to understand how
people and services relate in practice by representing all the tangible and intangible
aspects of the customer journey. In one of the interview questions, the respondents
were asked to tell all the processes that their customers go through during the pre-
purchase, purchase, and post-purchase phases for the case of a complete new
bathroom. From these answers, a standard customer journey example of VitrA Retail
was revealed. The tangible aspects of this journey, which mainly included the service
touch points, were therefore derived from the interviews. On the other hand, in order
to understand the intangible aspects of the customer journey and to be able to
represent the customer experience, conducting contextual research was essential.
Thus, the observations made during the site visits enabled to discover the customer’s
point of view regarding the service delivery process and to evaluate every kind of
interaction that occurred in the store in a subjective way. Review websites, where
customers made comments about their own personal VitrA retail experience, were
also used as valuable sources to compare and visualize the different customer
satisfaction levels.
A customer experience is built over an extended period of time, starting before the
actual sales experience or transaction to include pre and post-purchase experiences
(Voss and Zomerdijk, 2007). For that reason, the customer journey depicted in the
map was divided into three phases as “pre-purchase”, “purchase”, and “post-
purchase”. The most important steps that occurred during each phase were listed
below the corresponding sub-titles such as “walk-in”, “product decisions”, “project
planning”…etc. The upper half of the experience map consisted of an “experiential
graph” in which the “satisfactory” and “unsatisfactory” experiences regarding each
phase of the customer journey could be located. The “baseline” represented the
“neutral” points of the customer experience; meaning the “standard” features of the
experience which do not change from customer to customer. Above the baseline,
“satisfactory experiences” were classified according to the customer’s degree of
satisfaction. In the same manner, “unsatisfactory experiences” were arranged below
the baseline; again with respect to their degree of importance on the overall customer
53
experience. This graph made it possible to identify the elements of the customer
journey that can be developed, for the creation of a more satisfactory and engaging
customer experience.
In conclusion, the visualization process assisted to define the touch points of the
service system and to analyse the interactions between the service and the customer
at each stage. Some purchase scenarios were not included in this map such as the
condition when customers visit the store with their own architects or the condition
when the person who makes the purchase is different from the person who will pay
for and use the bathroom. Still, one of the most typical customer journeys that is
likely to occur in a VitrA retail store was presented. Within this framework, “VitrA
Experience Map” can be an introductory starting point for a more detailed
visualization of VitrA’s service system.
4.5 Summary of the Chapter
Executing the appropriate methods evidently constitutes the most important part of a
research. In some circumstances, the selection and application process of the research
methods becomes as challenging as the analysis of the results. Deciding on the right
set of research techniques is also a critical factor that determines the accuracy and
validity of the findings.
In order to gain a thorough understanding of the customer experience in retail
settings, comprehending and analysing the physical and social context where the
service is offered is essential. This certainly requires the application of multiple
research methods. These research methods, as elaborated in this chapter, serve to
document the retail experience in VitrA retail stores and gather data to draw
implications about the service system.
During the initial phase of this study, a literature review was performed on the
previously determined research topics, keywords and key concepts. After a
comprehensive review of these literatures, the existing knowledge in relevant fields
was examined from a variety of perspectives. As the next pertinent step, the
examined concepts such as “customer experience” and “Service Design process”
were adapted to the specific context of “retail stores”, which resulted in several site
visits to the stores and showrooms of the leading firms in the total bathroom sector.
54
The site visits were also useful to corroborate the information gathered from the
interviews with store managers. The visual data collected from the site visits were
compared with the themes that were mentioned in the interviews to reveal the
mismatches between the “planned” service experience, the “executed” service
delivery process, and finally, the “perceived” customer experience. Eventually, the
steps which occur during the pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase experiences
in the retail context were visualized as a “customer experience map”; depicting both
the successful encounters and the gaps in the service system.
Consequently, considering the aims of the research, this chapter presents a “toolbox”
of methods that can be adapted to capure data from the holistic retail setting. In the
following chapter, the corporation which is selected as the subject of this research
study, VitrA will be investigated. Finally, the research findings will be analysed and
discussed.
55
5. EXPLORATION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN VITRA RETAIL
STORES
In this chapter, customer experience in VitrA retail stores is explored through service
design methods. Initially, the corporate profile of VitrA is briefly introduced.
Development of design culture and retail strategies in the company is summarized
with a historical perspective. Eventually, the findings of the study regarding VitrA
retail are discussed within the framework of the research aims.
5.1 Introduction
Considering the aims of this study, in the previous chapters, concepts including
customer experience, service design, co-creation, customer journeys, and touch
points were clarified; related subjects such as the significance of experiences in the
new economy, determinants of customer experiences in retail settings, emergence of
Service Design and Service Design methods were discussed. As justified in Chapter
4, in this phase of the research study, an investigation of the research topics are
executed within the context of the retail stores of an industry-leader company, VitrA.
In the light of this framework, corporate documentation, site visit observations, and
interviews are utilized to build the necessary knowledge on the researched issues in
the company context. Furthermore, a ‘customer experience map’ for VitrA retail is
created to explore how each phase of the service system can be improved.
Consequently, this chapter presents the outcomes of the research in the context of
VitrA retail; building upon how VitrA perceives VitrA retail, how VitrA retail is
perceived from Service Design perspective and finally, how VitrA retail is
experienced compared to other leading companies in the total bathroom sector.
5.2 General Information About VitrA Corporation
VitrA is a subsidiary of Eczacıbaşı, a Turkish industrial group founded in 1942 by
Dr. Nejat F. Eczacıbaşı, and is considered as the flagship brand of the Group. In
56
Turkey, Eczacıbaşı Group is the leader in most of its businesses and has distribution
networks that are among the strongest in their sectors (VitrA, 2010b). The range of
products under VitrA brand are produced by Eczacıbaşı Building Products Division,
which is now one of Turkey’s leading industrial companies and operates in the
pharmaceutical and consumer products industries, as well as in building products
(Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). The multi-brand/multi manufacturing site/multimarket
growth strategy of the Division is grounded on acquiring global brands (Eczacıbaşı,
2009). In 2006, Engers, a major player in the German tile market was taken over; in
2007, a 51% share and full management control of the highly prestigious
Villeroy&Boch’s tile operation was purchased; and in 2008, the German Burgbad
Company, the European leader of the luxury bathroom furniture market was acquired
(VitrA, 2010a). Following these acquisitions, in 2009, the Division was reorganized
to maximize synergy between Division companies (Eczacıbaşı, 2009). Table 5.1
shows the companies that are part of Eczacıbaşı Building Products division.
Table 5.1: Eczacıbaşı Building Products Division (Eczacıbaşı, 2009).
Eczacıbaşı Group Building Products Division
Eczacıbaşı Building Products Co.
Burgbad AG
Eczacıbaşı - Koramic Building Chemicals Manufacturing Co.
Engers Keramik GmbH & Co. KG
Intema Building Materials Marketing and Sales Co.
Villeroy & Boch Fliesen GmbH
VitrA (UK) Ltd.
VitrA Bad GmbH (Germany)
VitrA Bath and Tiles JSC (Russia)
VitrA Ireland Ltd.
VitrA Tiles Co.
VitrA Tiles LLC (Russia)
VitrA USA Inc.
Business Areas
Sanitary Ware & Sanitary Fittings, Ceramic Tiles, Kitchen & Bathroom
Furniture, Acrylic Bathtubs & Sinks, Fillers & Adhesives
57
In 1958, to answer the growing demand, the first national large-scale plant for
ceramic sanitary ware was established in Kartal (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). The larger
factory, which later became part of its current mega complex in Bozüyük, started
production in 1977; the brassware plant was opened in 1979 and the tiles factory in
1991. The production of bathtubs also began in 1991, followed by the bathroom
furniture factory in 1992 (VitrA, 2010a). The first export shipment was made to
Germany in the early ‘80s, and in 1999, the company’s first manufacturing
investment abroad was launched in Ireland to better serve the foreign market
(Ricuperati, 2006). With a committed focus on differentiation, an Innovation Center
in Bozüyük is scheduled for completion in 2010, in order to provide a common
platform for all Building Products Division companies to conduct research and
development (Eczacıbaşı, 2009).
In line with its growth strategy, eight of the Building Products Division’s 16
manufacturing sites are located in major international markets. In 2010, the Division
will complete the construction of another tile manufacturing plant in Serpukhov,
Russia with a capacity of 3.3 million m2 per year (Eczacıbaşı, 2009).
5.2.1 Corporate History
VitrA is one of the landmarks in the history of industrial development in Turkey.
VitrA’s becoming a leading ceramics manufacturer and a world-wide recognized
corporation also represents the potential Turkey has in the international industrial
platform. Table 5.2 presents a brief timeline of VitrA’s corporate history.
58
Table 5.2: VitrA Corporate History Timeline.
1942 Launch of Dr. Nejat Eczacıbaşı Ceramic Factory in Kartal, İstanbul
1958 Establishment of the second production plant
Beginning of sanitary ware production
1966 Adoption of the brand name VitrA
1977 Beginning of production in the first factory that would later grow into the Bozüyük mega complex
1979 Beginning of production in the fittings plant
1991 Beginning of production in the tiles factory
Initiation of bathtubs plant
1992 Initiation of bathroom furniture plant
1993 Implementation of Total Quality Management
1999 First manufacturing investment abroad was launched in Ireland
2004 Beginning of Ross Lovegrove’s collaboration with VitrA
2006 Purchase of Engers; a major player in the German wall tile market
2007 Acquisition of 51% share and full management control of Villery & Boch tile operation
2008 Acquisition of Burgbad; the European leader of the luxury bathroom furniture market
The VitrA brand name was adopted in 1966 for ceramic bathroom products, and
since its foundation, VitrA has undergone constant growth. Its plants in Turkey and
Ireland produce approximately 5 million pieces of ceramic sanitary ware, 120,000
bathroom furniture modules, 350,000 pieces of acrylic bathtubs and shower trays, 3
million pieces bathroom and kitchen faucets, 2,5 million pieces of bathroom
accessories and 35 million sqm of ceramic wall and floor tiles a year (Erbilek, 2008).
Hence, worldwide, VitrA is the sixth largest manufacturer in its sector after Roca,
Grohe, Sanitex, Ideal Standard and Marazzi (VitrA, 2010b).
In the very beginning, VitrA produced only sanitary equipment for the Turkish
market and its primary goal was to attain a leading position in the country. However,
in the 1980s, VitrA’s capacity exceeded the needs of the domestic market and some
of its production was exported (Erbilek, 2007). This was also an outcome of the
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change in Turkish industrial policy during those times, which was a policy of export
orientation (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). In the 1990s, as the production technology
improved, the market became highly competitive. As a result, the company decided
to make some investments and extended its product line. Thus, VitrA also diversified
into bathroom tiles and equipment, and became a solution provider for the complete
bathroom space (Erbilek, 2007). Beginning from 2000’s, VitrA strengthened its
position in the international markets, with its “Bathroom Culture” tagline, allience
with foreign designers and multi-brand growth strategy (Erbilek, 2008). Figure 5.1
shows the evolution of the VitrA brand.
Figure 5.1 : Evolution of the VitrA brand (Erbilek, 2008).
Consequently, VitrA’s brand vision is based on the effective use of the bathroom
space, in form and function, in the application of different and diverse materials, in
creating unique and intimate experiences, and especially in the creation of
customized, need-based total bathroom spaces (Erbilek, 2008).
5.2.2 Product Range
VitrA has a wide product range which entails ceramic sanitary ware, bathroom
faucets and accessories, bathtubs and shower systems, indoor and outdoor wall and
floor covering, bathroom furniture, building chemicals, plumbing fixtures and tiles.
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In this manner, VitrA is one of the few global manufacturing brands to design
complete bathrooms and offers every type of product required for the contemporary
bathroom (VitrA, 2010b).
VitrA branded ceramic sanitary ware encompasses products such as toilet, bidet,
cistern, toilet pedestal, and ceramic washbasin. Non-ceramic complementary
products like acrylic bathtubs and shower trays, bathroom fittings, accessories and
ceramic tiles are covered by the brand name as well. The company also produces
brassware products including showerheads, faucets and complementary water
management systems, but markets them under a different brand name, Artema.
VitrA product categories offer a great variety in terms of technical, dimensional, and
functional features to address different target markets, including more specific
customer groups such as children and the elderly (VitrA, 2010a). In addition, many
of the product series offer distinct color or style options which allow more flexible
and personalized bathroom solutions. Different dimension choices are also available
for most of the products. The “System Fit” bathroom furniture concept is a good
example to this approach. It provides 4 different colors, 4 different handle options,
and comprises various heights, widths, and depths that is coherent with 30 diverse
washbasins, as demonstrated in Figure 5.2.
Figure 5.2 : The “System Fit” Concept.
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VitrA attains a rich diversity in the technological features of its products as well.
Among these are ceramic technologies named VitrAClean and VitrAHygiene, PVD
(physical vapor deposition) coated products, odor prevention systems, and products
that reduce water consumption (VitrA, 2010a).
By creating the total bathroom concept and pairing it with its production capabilities,
VitrA is a leader in terms of product portfolio. The firm creates integrated collections
to turn the bathroom into a complete living space, together with the state-of-the-art
technology and design (VitrA, 2010b).
5.2.3 Business Breakdown and Market Position
VitrA has undergone constant expansion since it was founded in 1966, to the point
where 80% of its production is now exported to 75 countries in five continents, by
over 150 showrooms and 2,000 sales points (VitrA, 2010b). VitrA consistently
maintained its position as the leader in the domestic market where it currently has a
25% share, but it also acquired a good position in the international market over the
past 13 years (Erbilek, 2007). This can be associated with several strengths of the
company like its accumulation of technology and expertise over the years by being
the first establishment in the sector, its focus on design, and a strong marketing
perspective. Table 5.2 shows the international market share of VitrA Bath, as of
2009.
Table 5.3: VitrA International Market Share (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010).
2009 VitrA Bath International Market Share
Germany 13%
England 6%
USA 3%
Austria 10%
France 3%
Italy 2%
Israel 8%
Scandinavia 8%
New Zealand 10%
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Today, VitrA holds a 13% market share in Germany, 10% in Austria, 6% in the UK,
3% in the US and in France, 2% in Italy, 8% in Israel and Scandinavia, and 10% in
New Zealand (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). These percentages indicate the expansion of
VitrA’s distribution channels and rising consumer awareness of the VitrA brand as a
supplier of complete bathroom solutions, not only in Germany and Austria but also
in other markets.
Berna Erbilek (2007), Marketing Director of VitrA, states that their goal is to
maintain the leadership position in the domestic market, while becoming one of the
top three names in the strategic markets. In order to achieve this, a great effort is put
forth to enhance VitrA’s capabilities in three dimensions: product leadership,
operational excellence, and an ability to stay close to the customer (Erbilek, 2007).
In a sector with such strong competing brands, it becomes crucial to be “visible” in
the market. This explains why VitrA does not manage its sales operations from
Turkey, but uses offices in the strategic markets (Erbilek, 2007). More specifically,
VitrA has sales offices in France, UAE (United Arab Emirates), China, Saudi Arabia,
Iraq, Bahrain, Ukraine, USA, Libya, and Azerbaijan (Erbilek, 2008). Besides
carrying out sales and marketing activities, these offices collect information about
local markets, consumer tastes, trends and expectations. Afterward, they transfer this
information to the main office in Turkey through well-defined and systematic
processes (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). Thus, the company concentrates on increasing
its world-wide sales through strong marketing campaigns and distribution channels.
Longer term strategic markets include Turkey’s neighboring markets with high
market potential, particularly Bulgaria, Greece, Romania and Ukraine (Eczacıbaşı,
2009). Another important market for VitrA is Russia, where a tile production plant is
being established and expected to start operating in 2010 (Eczacıbaşı, 2009).
Consequently, it can be asserted that VitrA’s central focus has shifted from
“production” to “market strategy” which encompasses important considerations such
as the markets VitrA wants to be in, the ones it wants to leave because of low
profitability, and the markets which might have a potential for the future even if they
are not very profitable today (Erbilek, 2007).
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5.2.4 Design Culture in VitrA
VitrA’s brand vision is based on “bathroom culture” and in order to communicate
this to the customer, beginning from the 2000s, VitrA began to use design in a more
strategic sense and systematically integrate it into corporate planning (Topaloğlu and
Er, 2010). In fact, Erbilek (2007) states that “VitrA should come across as the
company that redefines the bathroom, changes customer perceptions and
differentiates by means of design”. To realize this ambition, by the end of the 1990s,
the company had acquired advanced industrial design capabilities and viewed design
as a major source for increasing competitiveness (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). For these
reasons, VitrA began to collaborate with design consultancy companies such as
Pilots Design and NOA, and with Turkish industrial designers like Defne Koz and
Inci Mutlu (VitrA, 2010a). There are also six industrial designers in the company’s
product development department. Design processes are integrated with product
development processes and carried out concurrently in the product development
department comprising 25 employees in total, all headed by a product development
manager (Topaloğlu and Er, 2010).
With the aim of creating a brand image based on design competence and creativity,
VitrA also continued its activities in technological product innovation; mainly
encompassing R&D activities toward reducing water consumption (Topaloğlu and
Er, 2010). For example, the company developed toilets that reduced water
consumption from 6 to 4.5 liters, which was a first in the domestic market
(Topaloğlu and Er, 2010). As a result of the continuous product development
activities, VitrA received an award for having the most patent applications of any
Turkish brand at the Turkish Patent Institute in 2009 (Eczacıbaşı, 2009).
VitrA’s “form + architecture + functionality” design approach leads to the “bathroom
culture” concept which is based on Turkey’s legacy in architecture and ceramics that
provides a unique vantage point for observation and creation (Erbilek, 2007).
Inspired by the traditional Turkish hammam, VitrA’s quest is to create complete
bathroom environments and “reinventing the bathroom experience” by changing the
interaction with the bathroom (VitrA, 2010a). Therefore, it is possible to say that
VitrA sets its core attribute as the totality of bathroom space and everything in it. As
per Erbilek (2007), this viewpoint brings a competitive advantage not only in product
design but also in the effective use of the entire bathroom space, in the application of
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diverse materials, in creating unique and intimate spaces, and especially in the
creation of a customized, need-based, total bathroom space. This indicates that
bathrooms are no longer limited to their original functions and increasingly viewed
as a self-contained living space (Erbilek, 2007).
One of the major strengths of VitrA is the use of industrial design and product
development activities in combination with its marketing strategy. Another important
strength is that the strategic use of industrial design is fully supported by corporate
management with the allocation of significant financial resources for the creation of
new product ranges, and for commissioning prominent industrial designers who
could draw global attention and strengthen VitrA’s brand identity (Topaloğlu and Er,
2010). In fact, the company has several collections designed by prominent names
such as Ross Lovegrove and Matteo Thun; which is an example that proves how
VitrA employs design as part of its corporate strategy.
Ross Lovegrove’s collaboration with VitrA began in October 2004, with the
‘Istanbul Collection’; a range of 175 bathroom products including ceramic sanitary-
ware, ceramic tiles, acrylic bathtubs and shower trays, taps, accessories and
bathroom furniture that Lovegrove describes as the “total bathroom” (Ricuperati,
2006). In this collection, Lovegrove was influenced by Otoman architecture,
geometries and calligraphy. He then combined these elements with the underlying
concept in much of his work, called “organic essentialism”, which is based on the
exploration of sophisticated technology and materials for the creation of sculptural
and organic shapes; a natural fit for VitrA’s brand identitiy (Ricuperati, 2006).
Figure 5.4 shows some products from the Istanbul Collection.
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Figure 5.3 : “Istanbul” Collection by Ross Lovegrove.
MOD, a name derived from the words modern, modular and modest, is the second
collection with the signature of Ross Lovegrove. The modularity of the collection
enriches the combination alternatives and presents products suitable for different
interior solutions. MOD is also a good example to the collections that reflect VitrA’s
eco-friendly design philosophy, as it comprises of products which control water
consumption (VitrA, 2010a). The most recent collection by Lovegrove is “Freedom”,
which won the 2009 Good Design Award and was nominated for a 2010 Elle Décor
International Design Award (Eczacıbaşı, 2009). Figure 5.5 presents product
examples from the MOD and Freedom collections.
Figure 5.4 : “MOD” and “Freedom” Collections by Ross Lovegrove.
In conclusion, VitrA’s design strategy entails drawing inspirations from the Turkish
bathing culture to develop aesthetic, functional, innovative design solutions with a
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commitment to eco-efficiency and sustainability as expressed in the company’s new
production, design, and management philosophy, “Blue Life” (Eczacıbaşı, 2009).
5.3 Development of VitrA Retail
Intema Building Materials Marketing and Sales Inc. is the company responsible for
all the sales and marketing activities for the VitrA and Artema branded products.
Intema designs bathroom and kitchen displays and provides planning, project design
and after sales services. Authorized dealers, sub-dealers, numerous DIY markets, and
fully-owned stores are included in Intema’s retailing network of more than 3000
sales points (VitrA, 2010a). Among the 22 fully-owned Intema Stores, 11 of them
sell VitrA and Artema branded products which can be listed as: Intema Nişantaşı
(1750 m2), Intema Caddebostan (950 m2), Intema Florya (1250 m2), Intema Ankara
(1200 m2), Intema Izmir (1000 m2), Intema Samsun (420 m2), Intema Adana (600
m2), Intema Kayseri, Intema Çeşme, Intema Kuşadası, and Intema Ayvalık (VitrA,
2010a).
In these sales points, Intema employs expert sales staff and building professionals to
address customer needs. The company also has 105 authorized partners all around
Turkey which provide installation, maintenance and repair services (Eczacıbaşı,
2009). The unified structure of sales, marketing and after-sales services under the
roof of a unique company appears to be one of the strengths of VitrA, as they can
control and operate the whole service offering starting from project planning to sales
guidance and after-sales support.
The first Intema Store was opened in Şişli, Istanbul, in 1979. Five years later, in
1984, Intema Nişantaşı started to operate, which is VitrA’s largest retail store in
Turkey. With the developing service network, the total number of stores has reached
22 (VitrA, 2010a). For the last two years, the stores have been organized according
to the different brand names. Thus, today there are four categories of Intema Stores
as VitrA, Villeroy&Boch, Intema Kitchen, and Intema Outlet Stores in Bozüyük,
Tuzla and Diyarbakır (VitrA, 2010a). With their layouts, displays, employees, and
combined planning-sales-after sales services, Intema Stores set an example to the
other brands in the sector.
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Besides Intema, other sales companies of VitrA include VitrA Bad (Central Europe),
VitrA USA, VitrA UK, VitrA Ireland, VitrA Russia and VitrA Bulgaria (Erbilek,
2008). This network, in collaboration with the marketing and sales offices, serves
more than 2000 retail sales points and 150 exclusive showrooms. 11 of these are
fully-owned by VitrA and are located in major international markets (Eczacıbaşı,
2009). The most recently opened showroom is located in Cologne (Germany) which
started to operate in 2008, to support the brand’s expansion in the professional and
contract business market (Eczacıbaşı, 2009). Other important company-owned stores
are located in Cork (Ireland), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Kazan (Russia) (Erbilek, 2008).
Figure 5.5 presents views from VitrA retail stores around the world.
Figure 5.5 : VitrA retail stores around the world (Erbilek, 2008).
As stated before, Russia is seen as one of the most promising markets for the
company and therefore, recent marketing activities have focused on improving VitrA
brand awareness by the establishment of new showrooms in Kazan, Yekaterinburg,
Serpukhov and a second showroom in Moscow in the two years ahead (Eczacıbaşı,
2009).
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5.4 Research Findings and Analysis
In order to gain an understanding about the retail experience of a leading
organization in its sector, multiple research methods are needed. This results in a rich
amount of visual and textual data, covering a wide variety of aspects such as the
stages of the customer journey, the elements of the service interface, service touch
points and the actors involved in the service delivery process. Eventually, the
gathered materials are critically studied within the confines of “VitrA Retail by
VitrA”, “VitrA Retail by Service Design Methods”, and “Analysis of Competing
Corporations”. This analysis will build the basis to derive implications about the
relations between what the literature states, how VitrA perceives itself, and what
VitrA actually does; regarding customer experience and services.
5.4.1 VitrA Retail by VitrA
The interviews with the store managers provided significant insights about VitrA’s
brand values, aspects of VitrA’s customer experience, in-store features, and the
positive and negative characteristics of the service delivery system from the
organization’s point of view. The transcribed materials were then reviewed to find
the specific themes related to the research topics (customer experience, service
interactions, touch points, retail store design clues). As a result, three main themes
were identified: design, service and experience. Consequently, data from the three
interviews were categorized under each corresponding theme. After that, some sub-
categories were reached including product design, store design, store experience,
purchase experience, post-purchase experience, product usage experience, front-line
employees, project planning, authorized service, and customer services. All the
information was rearranged according to these sub-categories to generate a final
scheme, as demonstrated in Figure 5.6. Eventually, each of these three themes will be
analysed and discussed throughout this section with corroborating evidence from the
site visit observations, in order to provide an understanding of how VitrA perceives
its own service delivery system.
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Figure 5.6 : Interview analysis scheme.
Design: From the interviews, it can be interpreted that design has definitely become
a fundamental component of VitrA’s corporate culture. The members of the
organization are aware of the strategic importance of design in attaining
differentiation, customer loyalty, and brand equity. The collaborations with
prominent designers are also strongly emphasized, to imply the brand’s committed
focus on quality and innovation. In fact, in the site visit, it was observed that the
names and images of these designers are depicted prevalently in different areas of the
store, as a feature of the displays. Figure 5.7 shows the displays of collections
designed by Ross Lovegrove and Matteo Thun.
Figure 5.7 : Displays of collections by Ross Lovegrove and Matteo Thun.
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Catalogues are regarded as useful visual tools to present the products that have not
been displayed in the store. However, as per the store managers, their catalogues are
insufficient to communicate the product attributes completely. As also shown in
Figure 5.8, the catalogues depict only some of the technical features of the products
with the dimensions and a single image; which causes difficulties in the decision-
making process.
Figure 5.8 : Example from a VitrA Catalogue.
The store managers also believe that it is very important to convey a product usage
experience in the store, therefore customers have the opportunity to sense and try the
products before purchase. For instance, there are several fully-working bathroom
faucets in the store which allow customers to test the functional attributes in a
realistic manner. Figure 5.9 shows a display of fully-working bathroom faucets.
Figure 5.9 : Display of fully-working bathroom faucets.
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Service: According to the respondents, VitrA’s aim is to provide services that reflect
the brand’s values and answer the needs and expectations of their customers in the
best possible way. The service package that VitrA offers its customers varies from
planning services to “turn-key” services, which comprise the implementation of
every detail in the bathroom by the VitrA Authorized Service staff. Besides these, the
interviewees also mention “Customer Services” as one of the strengths of their
service system; an office that customers can contact any time when they have a
problem with the products. Hence, constant control and follow-up of the whole
process is an essential aspect of VitrA Retail. Figure 5.10 presents VitrA Authorized
Service staff members and the project architect discussing the dimensions and
installation details for the fittings of a customer’s bathroom with respect to the
project plan.
Figure 5.10 : VitrA Authorized Service staff working on new bathroom fittings.
A shared viewpoint in the interviews is that VitrA’s service system mainly consists
of the interpersonal encounters between front-line employees and customers,
especially during sales guidance, as seen in Figure 5.11. In the case of a satisfactory
experience, the dependency on the human element and social aspects has certain
advantages like the creation of trust in the brand and positive word-of-mouth. On the
other hand, this system also acquires some disadvantages, such as the difficulty of
achieving standardized service delivery.
Figure 5.11 : Front-line employees providing sales guidance.
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Experience: In the interviews, retail stores are specified as the most significant
element of VitrA customer experience. The feelings produced by the space,
atmospheric features and light contribute to the store experience and therefore impact
purchase decisions. Within this perspective, up-to-date display arrangement is a top
priority of VitrA Retail. In-store design elements such as signage or different
material combinations are also utilized as expressions of the company culture. Figure
5.12 shows some interior views from Intema Nişantaşı.
Figure 5.12 : Interior views from Intema Nişantaşı.
In conclusion, VitrA Retail seeks to accomplish high-quality regarding all of these
themes with continuous store personnel training activities and gathering constant
feedback from customers. The successful long-term integration of such efforts into
the service system will certainly pave the way for a more customized and engaging
customer experience.
5.4.2 VitrA Retail by Service Design Methods
This research study is fundamentally based on the collection of data from the
experiential retail enviroment, including the contextual shifts of the customer (from
home, to store, and post-purchase). This data is then transformed into an “Experience
Map”, which is a fundamental Service Design method, to discuss and evaluate an
abstract idea of a chronologically proceeding service: the service process of a
complete bathroom purchase.
The proposed customer journey in the map presents the diverse encounters that take
place during the service process. These encounters result in either a satisfactory or an
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unsatisfactory experience. To begin with, the pre-purchase phase comprises the
“decision-making” stages and the “entrance to the store”. The “engagement” process
begins during the purchase phase. This is also the phase where customers go through
stages such as “interaction with staff”, “product decisions”, “project planning”, and
“payment”. Figure 5.13 presents “VitrA Experience Map”.
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Figure 5.13 : VitrA Experience Map.
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After all the planning and purchase phases are completed, the post-purchase phase
starts. This basically involves the installation process of the products and the
encounters with VitrA Authorized Service staff. This stage indicates a change in the
context as well, from the store to the customers’ houses. However, each process
applied by the Authorized Service staff are examined and controlled by the store
employee who has planned the bathroom.
The first implication that can be derived from the experience map is that VitrA
presents a complete service starting from product decisions and project planning
phases; continuing with sales guidance and after sales support, which is an important
value proposition for the customer.
Secondly, when the map is examined in detail, it can be asserted that almost the
whole service system depends on the personal interactions between front-line
employees and the customer. As a matter of fact, especially during the purchase
phase, the front-line staff has critical responsibilities. First of all, they are required to
understand the needs, likes-dislikes, and lifestyles of customers; and propose a
project plan with the right combination of products considering all these inputs and
budget limitations. Moreover, they are also in charge of following up the rest of the
process until the bathroom is completed. Thus, the responsibility for custom service
delivery in VitrA Retail frequently falls on the shoulders of front-line employees.
This means that their ability and motivation is highly critical for a favorable,
satisfactory customer experience.
Finally, another significant inference from the map is that front office-back office
coordination is an essential aspect of the VitrA retail experience. Due to the different
production times of the various product ranges, the logistics and stock management
of products need to be carried out concurrently. In fact, as also confirmed in the
interviews, out-of-stock products frequently cause problems during the post-purchase
phase. In order to eliminate the negative effects of these problems on the customer
experience, a strong communication network needs to be established between the
back-office, the front-office and the customer.
5.4.3 Analysis of Competing Corporations
In the previous sections, VitrA Corporation was studied in detail through a variety of
sources. With the collected evidence and data, a systemic view of the customer
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experience in VitrA retail stores could be developed and visually represented.
However, in order to reach concrete conclusions regarding the total bathroom sector,
the retail environments of other leading brands must be examined. With this
approach, it is also possible to elicit ideas about where VitrA Retail stands in terms
of design components and experiential features compared to other competing
corporations in the market.
Jacob Delafon corner at BHV: The first visit was conducted to the Jacob Delafon
corner at BHV, Paris. Although the products are displayed within an area of 40m2,
this limited space has been used quite efficiently.
Figure 5.14 : Jacob Delafon corner at BHV, Paris.
As seen in Figure 5.14, grey is the dominant color in the displays and a bright gold
color is used in some graphic elements such as the dress of the female figure in the
center, the logo, and the explanations on the walls regarding the collections. This
forms effective contrast and creates a visual unity. A variety of colors are used in the
products as well. The price of each product is written on the information cards on the
walls. The aim of the overall display design seems to be depicting as many products
as possible rather than creating different interior concepts. There is only one sales
personnel and when customers want to make a purchase, they discuss their choices
with him, as demonstrated in Figure 5.15.
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Figure 5.15 : Customer and sales personnel at Jacob Delafon corner.
Duravit Showroom (Salon d’Eau): Duravit Showroom in Paris, known as Salon
d’Eau, is one of the most important showrooms of the brand. Figure 5.16 shows the
facade of the showroom.
Figure 5.16 : Salon d’Eau: Facade.
Salon d’Eau is a showroom that highlights the emotional and sensual connotations of
the bathroom rather than the functional. To imply, the bathroom is depicted as a
living area on its own right, contrasting with the general view of the bathroom. Thus,
the main aim of Duravit is to create an integrated, pleasant atmosphere with the right
mixture of products, materials, light and colors. For that reason, wood is a
dominantly used material as it gives the products a special character and natural
warmth. Besides the matching wood panels used in the products, a majority of the
displays reflect the perfect balance that ceramics forms with wood, as presented in
Figure 5.17.
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Figure 5.17 : Salon d’Eau: Display Examples.
The bathroom furniture is fully equipped with towels, shampoos, soaps and cosmetic
creams just like the bathroom drawers in a house. This way, the visitors can visualize
how they can use the shelves and compartments in the furniture in a more realistic
manner. Figure 5.18 shows the various bathroom furniture displays.
Figure 5.18 : Salon d’Eau: Bathroom Furniture Displays.
There are two employees in the showroom. When visitors want to ask questions, they
approach the information desk, as shown in Figure 5.19. All the product catalogues
are orderly arranged on the shelves next to the desk.
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Figure 5.19 : Salon d’Eau: Information desk and catalogues.
Duravit is a brand with a strong focus on technology and design. Philippe Starck has
designed several collections for Duravit, and this collaboration is depicted like a
special feature of the brand; as conveyed with the collection names (i.e. Starck 1,
Starck 2, Starck X) and with the graphic elements that comprise his photos. Figure
5.20 shows the display of a bathtub designed by Philippe Starck.
Figure 5.20 : Salon d’Eau: Display of a bathtub designed by Philippe Starck.
In Salon d’Eau, a sense of unity and order is attained through the application of a
consistent design language in every detail. The showroom layout enables easy
navigation and the products that belong to similar categories or collections are
displayed side by side. As depicted in Figure 5.21, the names of the collections or
products are written on the panels behind the displays along with the product
dimensions and a visual signage at the top. Light is also used as an important design
element to generate altered moods in different areas of the showroom.
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Figure 5.21 : Salon d’Eau: Interior Views.
Salon d’Eau contains a multifunctional shower and a Starck X bathtub for visitors to
try out. This is a very important offering provided by the showroom as it gives the
opportunity to experience the products before purchase. Moreover, a free bathroom
planning service is offered and customers can register at any time for a bathroom
planning session. First, an interview with a Duravit planner is arranged to discuss
personal preferences. After determining the layout of the bathroom, the planner
prepares an individual plan including free-hand color drawings and parts lists.
Grohe Showroom: The Grohe Showroom in Paris is situated in the modern business
district, La Défense. It immediately creates a feeling of immersion into the brand and
the products in the moment of entrance. This effect is created with the depiction of
the brand logo in noteworthy points and the graphic elements that represent the
current campaign themes- like the one with an oversize showerhead, as shown in
Figure 5.22.
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Figure 5.22 : Grohe Showroom: Facade and Entrance.
In the displays, natural, raw materials such as wood and stone are used. The
bathroom displays are fully-decorated, each defining a unique space, with its own
decorative elements like candles and vases, its specific floor material and colors. The
faucets are displayed inside small cubic compartments of a tall, wooden stand. Small
spotlights are placed on top of each compartment, resembling the displays of
jewelers. Packaging design is also an important aspect of the brand and many
packages of the same product are placed on top of each other, creating an interesting
display, as shown in Figure 5.23.
Figure 5.23 : Display examples from the Grohe Showroom.
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As also stated in the company slogan “Enjoy Water”, water is seen as an important
complementary element of the products. Figure 5.24 shows a corner in the showroom
called the “Shower Fountain” where several showerhead models are displayed side
by side. These showerheads are connected to the same plumbing system. Thus,
visitors are able to see and experience the water flow from each of them.
Figure 5.24 : The “Shower Fountain” in the Grohe Showroom.
The mezzanine floor upstairs offers a working area with Internet access and an
architect greets the visitors. The products are shown in five exhibition areas:
showerheads, bathroom, kitchen, WC and special fittings, as seen in Figure 5.25.
Figure 5.25 : Mezzanine floor of the Grohe Showroom.
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In the mezzanine floor, the products are generally mounted on the walls with the
name of the collection written on top. The product groups are also identified with
specific signs. An important service provided in this floor is that the bathroom and
kitchen fittings can be arranged on washbasins and sinks. This gives the opportunity
to see the products in their “natural environments”, so the decision-making process
becomes easier. Figure 5.26 shows views from the exhibition areas.
Figure 5.26 : Views from the exhibition areas in the mezzanine floor.
An interesting detail in the Grohe Showroom is the 3D demonstration of the fittings.
All of them have a specially designed stand which attracts attention at once, like the
ones presented in Figure 5.27. These models emphasize Grohe’s focus on
technology, design, and production quality and create the impression that their
designs are as significant and unique as the designs of the products.
Figure 5.27 : 3D demonstration of fittings in the Grohe Showroom.
5.5 Summary of the Chapter
In this chapter, the studied organization, VitrA was introduced and research findings
were analysed. Initially, a brief description of VitrA’s corporate profile was
presented, followed by a detailed overview of the development of VitrA’s retail
85
organization. In the second part of the chapter, data collected from the interviews and
site visits were discussed and the “Experience Map” created for VitrA retail was
interpreted from the perspective of the Service Design concepts reviewed in Chapter
3. Eventually, the company’s approach to the creation of customer experiences is
examined and the stages of the service delivery process are briefly summarized.
To sum up, within the confines of this research study, this chapter comprises an
exploration of the customer experience concept in the total bathroom sector and
highlights the potential of emerging Service Design methods in capturing data from
the holistic retail context.
The final chapter entails the conclusions derived and insights obtained from the
research study. First, the role of design in an experience-based economy is discussed
utilizing the findings of Chapter 2 and 5. Afterward, an input proposal from Service
Design perspective is provided using the findings of Chapter 3, 4 and 5.
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6. EXPLORATION OF CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE IN VITRA RETAIL
STORES
In this final chapter, after a brief overview, conclusions derived and insights obtained
through the study are discussed. Moreover, opportunities for future studies on the
subject will be indicated.
6.1 Introduction
As stated in Chapter 4, the aims of this research study were to:
• Understand the role of design in an experience-based economy within the
retail context.
• Provide an understanding of how retail experience strategies impact on the
customer in-store and post-purchase activities.
• Emphasize the potential of Service Design methods in capturing and creating
retail experiences by highlighting the benefits Service Design methods
provide over traditional techniques (i.e. questionnaires).
• Identify the nature of the retail experience in the total bathroom sector in
order to build a case for greater use of Service Design techniques in this area.
• Provide a “toolbox” of mixed methods that can be combined to capture data
from the holistic retail setting.
• Provide an understanding of customer experience in the total bathroom sector
with reference to VitrA retail stores.
This study began with a principal inquiry questioning if Service Design could be a
new perspective to capture, design and visualize customer experiences, or in other
means, the contribution of Service Design in creating compelling customer
experiences. This central query has also brought up secondary questions, such as, ‘if
it is a new paradigm to consider Service Design as a vital aspect of engaging
customer experiences, what is the nature of this paradigm, and what are the concepts
associated with it’ and ‘if this paradigm uses the holistic approach as its core
88
function, what kind of methods does it utilize and how’. Therefore, throughout this
study, relevant concepts are explored with reference to these questions.
Consequently, in this chapter, the insights elaborated from the research are
summarized with an input proposal from Service Design perspective. Furthermore, at
the end of the chapter, further research possibilities are stated.
6.2 Towards an Analysis: Input Proposal from Service Design Perspective
This research is focused on the retail experience in the total bathroom sector, and the
use of design tools and methods to reveal the various aspects of this experience.
Thus, the primary argument of this study is that the Service Design process can be
used as a tool for capturing and creating more engaging customer experiences in
retail contexts.
As stated above, the central question of this research study is the identification of the
customer experience inputs in retail environments, in order to build a case for greater
use of Service Design techniques in this area. Therefore, relevant essential concepts
are explored including “customer experience”, “retail experience”, and “Service
Design”. Using this background knowledge as a basis, an insight about the customer
experience concept in the total bathroom sector is reached, along with a succint
discussion on the role of design in an experience-based economy.
One of the major findings of the research on the transformation towards the
“Experience Economy” is a new business environment where organizations are
defined as “service and experience providers” rather than “product manufacturers”.
As a reflection of these emerging paradigms, “customer experience management”
shows potential to become a new mindset for companies to address the needs and
expectations of their customers. However, this mindset brings up some challenges in
practical applications one of which is ‘if this is a new paradigm for value creation,
what are the sources and methods to capture, envisage and orchestrate customer
experiences?’ In order to overcome such challenges, it should be acknowledged that
design has to go beyond its traditional roles. After being a tool for innovation and
competitive advantage in the industrial economy, now it has to seek new
opportunities of innovation in the service economy.
89
Today, customers are looking for complete experiences. In “How Customers Think:
Essential Insights into the Mind of the Market” Gerald Zaltman (2003) states that
“Customers’ preferences and motivations are far less influenced by the functional
attributes of products and services than the subconscious sensory and emotional
elements derived by the total experience.” This is the point where Service Design
comes in as a competence. Hence, Service Design emerges as the new design domain
that can provide the methods and the systemic thinking needed for differentiation and
growth to industry players who are still driven by the product-centric value creation
approach. Within this framework, it can be implied that Service Design approach
plays a critical role in the competitive strategy of an organization as it enables to
focus on the overall customer experience. Consequently, Service Design needs to be
positioned in the design organizations of companies and become an indispensable
element of their core proposition.
An important phase of this research study was the exploration of how emerging
Service Design methods could be used to capture customer experiences. Thus, the
“Customer Experience Map” for VitrA Retail, as one of the main outputs of this
research study, employs a compilation of Service Design methods, emphasizing the
focus on the “customer” and customer-centric aspects such as “perceived service
quality”, “co-creation” and “engagement”. The utilization of Service Design methods
throughout the research and the investigation of retail environments from Service
Design perspective makes it possible to derive insights and conclusions regarding the
retail experience in the total bathroom sector.
To begin with, as a leader in its sector, VitrA possesses several strengths such as its
accumulation of technology and skills, high-capacity production facilities, its focus
on design and innovation, its strategic management capabilities and its strong
marketing and sales organization; which proves that it is a company which
encompasses all the necessary sources and infrastructure to adapt to the conditions of
a service and experience-based economy. As a matter of fact, the company’s retailing
network would be an appropriate starting point towards the integration of Service
Design approach into the organization’s culture. This way, VitrA can gradually start
to embrace the service-oriented viewpoint besides maintaining its production and
design quality in its products.
90
For a well-managed retail experience, the customer should be an integral part of that
experience. Therefore, it is critical to consider every encounter from the customer’s
viewpoint. The primary way to achieve this is the utilization of Service Design
methods to capture and understand the expectations of the target customer groups.
Thus, a “toolbox” of emerging Service Design methods needs to be integrated into
VitrA’s market research activities. In addition, giving customers the opportunity to
try as many products as possible in the store before purchase, is another effective
way of integrating them to the store experience. Duravit Design Center in Hornberg,
Germany comprises six in-house test bathrooms and customers have the chance to
make an appointment for trying the products displayed in these bathrooms (Duravit,
2010). Although this is an extreme example, the same idea can be applied to a
number of VitrA products in a specialized area created in the store.
Secondly, bathroom products are specific as they are bought once or twice in a
lifetime, when decorating a new house or renovating the old one; which does not
happen too often. For that reason, special consultancy is required during purchase.
Hence, the interaction between customers and front-line store employees needs to be
adequately organized in all its aspects to sustain customer loyalty. Finally, a
continuous monitoring needs to be set in place so that the critical conversions in the
delivery of the service can be evaluated and the offerings can be adapted to
customer’s changing needs over time.
Moreover, bathroom is a space which stimulates the senses with its tactile diversities,
its relation with water, and olfactory elements. Therefore, in a total bathroom retail
context, sensory design features need to be emphasized with the store atmospherics
as well. In fact, one of the most essential conditions of a memorable customer
experience is the creation of a “theme” (Pine and Gilmore, 1999). For instance,
Duravit has a themed showroom that implies the bathroom as “a refuge to escape
from the stress of everyday life”; with inspirations from the remedial and energy-
giving spa experience (Duravit, 2010). Similarly, Grohe uses “advanced technology
and design” as a theme in its showroom which is conveyed by specific signage and
displays emphasizing the products’ technical features. For the specific case of VitrA
Retail, atmospheric elements such as music, lighting, and scents can be combined as
part of an all-embracing theme to communicate VitrA’s brand attributes and to unify
disparate product displays.
91
With small adjustments in the store environment, the customer experience can be
optimized to a considerable level. VitrA’s store layouts are very suitable for different
display applications. However, due to the limited space, all product ranges cannot be
displayed. This problem can be solved by using a variety of multimedia tools. VitrA
already presents some of its products through videos. The number of such
presentations can be increased, with the addition of some interactive features as well.
For example, there can be a specialized area in the store where customers can make
choices from a digital catalogue, plan their bathroom and even take a virtual tour
inside it. This way, VitrA can transform the process of choosing products for a new
bathroom into a personalized co-creation experience by involving customers into the
design and planning stages.
As a final remark, positive word-of-mouth is significant for every organization in
order to be a strong player in the market. VitrA has a good brand reputation and is
highly recognized by different customer groups. This is a strength that the
organization can utilize to create new touch points which will make its service
system more tangible to its customers. A VitrA bathroom that a customer sees in a
friend’s house is definitely more likely to cause purchase propensity than an online
review or a verbal recommendation because it is a real application of a total
bathroom design solution. Within this framework, it can be suggested that VitrA can
develop a kind of “photo album” to use in its website and in its retail stores which
comprises successful bathroom solutions from customers’ own houses. This can
provide a realistic visual database for customers so that they can make comparisons
between various bathroom plans and product combinations. Thus, a more favorable
and engaging experience can be created.
In conclusion, Service Design is the area of design practice that can be used to
provide a thorough understanding of retail environments and to develop more
engaging service delivery models for the retail experience with its rich
methodological basis and its unique perspective that places customers at the heart of
the value creation process.
6.3 Opportunities for Future Studies
In this research study, a wide array of topics is explored around certain research
aims. Most of the research findings provide opportunities for the development of new
92
retail strategies and may have further implications in terms of both practice and
future research (i.e. doctoral research).
Additionally, in the light of the perspectives that were put forward in the second and
third chapters, this study becomes an initial attempt to identify the nature of the retail
experience in the total bathroom sector and to build a case for greater use of Service
Design techniques in this area. Therefore, this inquiry is promising to contribute to
the Service Design studies in the academic environments both in Turkey and in the
world and to be extended to future research.
93
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APPENDICES
APPENDIX A : Interview Questions
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APPENDIX A
Interview Questions
1) What does “VitrA” represent? What are the qualifications that differentiate VitrA
from its competitors?
2) What is the most significant aspect of VitrA Customer Experience? Why?
3) Suppose that a customer will make a total bathroom purchase. What are the stages
that the customer goes through until the bathroom is completed? How do you
persuade a customer who comes to VitrA for the first time?
4) How do you evaluate the service VitrA delivers to its customers considering; a)
pre-purchase, b) purchase, c) post-purchase stages? In your opinion, what are the
strengths and weaknesses in all three stages?
5) What do you think about VitrA Retail Stores? What are the positive and negative
aspects?
6) Through which channels do you get feedback from the customers? How do you
integrate this data to the service system?
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CURRICULUM VITAE
Candidate’s full name: Deniz SAYAR
Place and date of birth: Izmir, 12.02.1985
Permanent Address: Mithatpaşa Cad. No: 883 A Blok 6/12 Göztepe - Izmir
Universities and Colleges attended: Istanbul Technical University
Middle East Technical University
American Collegiate Institute
Publications:
� Sayar, D., 2009. Endüstriyel Tasarım Öğrencilerinin Mesleği Algılayış Biçimlerindeki Farklılıklar Üzerine Bir Çalışma. Er, H. A. ve diğ. (Der.), 4. Ulusal Tasarım Kongresi: Tasarım veya Kriz-Bildiri Kitabı, 8-9 Ekim 2009, İTÜ Endüstri Ürünleri Tasarımı Bölümü, Istanbul.
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